One of the most valuable things you can do if you would like to be more self-sustainable is to add at least 2 or 3 laying Chickens to your back yard or property. Check with the council (go on line) to see how many for your area and consider your egg needs. High quality chickens should provide 6 eggs a week, although ours seem to do more.
You don’t need a Rooster to get eggs and you are likely to lose serious points with the neighbours if you decide to have one. We purchased ours girls locally in Beaudesert. I checked the other day and point of lay fowls were $28. Invest in quality because the feed and housing costs will be similar.
You can minimise your feed costs and reduce your household waste by feeding them a lot of your fruit and vegetable scraps plus give them some of the plants you have growing around the yard. Ours love thistle, Comfrey, Warrigal greens, sweet potato leaves – to name just a few. Ours are free range and enjoy the grubs and bugs.
Chicken manure is one of our most prized inputs for our significant compost production. Some people build or purchase mobile chook pens which can be used to help keep the grass down and reduce costs plus widen their diets. Others consider a permanent cage and the number of chickens you have will have a bearing on the size needed. You can purchase ready built or have one made. All the kids who visit here love collecting the eggs and we know we eat healthier with our own chickens.
So many people comment to us here at Tullamore Farm that their chickens have become great pets. We have some policies here (which are generally ignored) about naming the animals. One of many, many things you see when you join us on one of our Farm Tours is how we accommodate our chickens into the growing systems.
