So we adopted our girls in April and they bring us so much joy, eggs and beautiful fertiliser !!!!
Many thanks for sharing @mich1972. Those eggs look fantastic!
You might like to share your tips and experiences with your backyard chickens on this very popular and long-running discussion - Anyone got backyard chickens?
Jason
Oh great thanks Jason. Wasn’t sure where to post it and I definitely will 🐓🐓😊😊
Hi @mich1972,
Some day when I own my own property I'd really love to have chickens. I noticed the herbs you have in with the chickens, do they not try to eat them or are herbs not really on the menu? I would have thought chickens would eat just about all green matter available, perhaps I'm thinking of goats though.
How many chickens do you have all together and is there an average amount of eggs you get per day?
Mitchell
Hey Mitch. We have 6 beautiful girls. 4 x Black Australorps
1 x White Leghorn
1x ISA Brown
The chook run is approximately 4 x 4 metres. We have a metal chook coop approximately 1.5 x 1 metre for the girls to sleep in at night and lay their eggs. The flooring is concrete slabs in the coop so it is rodent and fox proof when they are sleeping at night. The floor cover in the coop is Snoozle ( wood shavings ) and Charlie Charcoal ( absorbs the smell ) this is cleaned out monthly and straight onto the compost heap. No laying box , they lay underneath their perch ( wide piece of pine ) with heaps of chopped up lavender ( calming ) and fragrant 🤣The fencing is Reo Mesh and Star Pickets. I purchased everything from work ( Bunnings )
The run was couch lawn they made sure they destroyed that 🤣 so now it is bales of straw and Charlie Charcoal. They work through it and it makes a beautiful compost for our garden !!
I am growing Wormwood in the run. This is fantastic to repel Mites and fleas. I also chop into pieces and add to the coop.
I have plenty of Italian Parsley in there , they don’t touch it. Also Elderflower , Mint and Tagetes.
I grow lots of greens for them too but they are on the outside of the run 🐓🐓🥚🥚😍😍
oh and Mitch we normally get between 3-5 eggs per day 🐓🐓🐓 but because it has been so cold , only 2-3 eggs
Here is a list of plants I have growing in the Chook Run .
Elderflower
Wormwood
Lavender
Rosemary
Oregano
Mint
Feverfew
Italian Parsley
Tagetes
Nasturtiums
The Coop is under a Weeping Bottlebrush tree for protection and shade. I also have a Pomegranate on the other side.
Greens are grown for the girls and given daily as a treat.
I also grow a tray of Millet for them to chomp on.
Cute!! My dream is to live on a bigger property and have chickens 🐓 When I was a kid we had them, they use to follow us around everywhere, they were the best! Enjoy 😊
@mich1972,
I thought we might like to cover how much a coop like yours would cost to construct as I trust we'll have plenty of interest in this topic. Something for up to eight chickens would be more than enough for most people I would think.
Do you believe a basic outlay of 4 x 88 x 88mm 2.4m F7 KD F4 DAR Treated Pine Premium Wrapped, 8 x Australian Builders 20kg Quick Set Concrete, 4 x ARC 4 x 2m x 6mm Reinforcing Ribbed Mesh, Rapidmesh 32 x 853 x 1800mm Galvanised Chainlink Side Gate, tie wire and a few rolls of Saxon 1200 x 100 x 100 x 1.25 5m Wire Mesh would be enough to get started?
Did you build this coop yourself? Are there any tips that you could give members that wished to build their own?
Your Coop plans sounds really good Mitch.
We used :
Absco Fowl House 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.7. We choose a metal coop , easier to clean the walls. Doesn’t harbour mites like timber can. Has mesh panelling for good ventilation.
600 x 600 x 38 concrete slabs for the floors. Slabs are the best as it protects the coop from foxes and rats trying to dig underneath to get in.
1.8 x 1.05 Reo Light Mesh for the fencing. 1.8 Star Pickets to attach the Reo Mesh. Roll of wire cut into pieces to secure to mesh to the star pickets. The holes are large enough for the girls to fit through, so we added a roll of Flower Mesh to the bottom of the fence, approximately 500mm in height and that is cable tied to the Reo. This was all purchased from Bunnings.
The roof of the Coop is covered and protected by the rain with a thick rubber we purchased from gumtree.
Letting the girls free range for the day 😍🐓
I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but do you need to clip their wing feathers to allow them to free-range?
Our girls are not clipped Mitch. They seem to be ok. We have high fence for the chook run and high fences on our property. I only let them free range when I’m on a day off and I am home. 😊
Interesting, I ask because I bought some chickens when I was younger and they "flew the coop" almost immediately after getting them. Maybe it was because I moved them to a new environment and they wanted to explore. The fences were certainly high enough, so I always presumed they must have been un-clipped and flew over them.
I wanted to start a backyard coop. Would you recommend buying a pre made coop and if so which one...and if not do you have any suggestions on how to construct a good coop for 2-4 hens?
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @sue8. It's great to have you join us and many thanks for your question.
On the first page of this discussion @mich1972 mentions-
I trust that she'll let us know if she'd do anything differently for 2-4 hens.
We look forward to hearing more about your backyard coop project and we'd also encourage you to let us know if you need any assistance or would like to share it with the community.
@sue8 ,
You might also be interested in browsing our range of easy to assemble fowl houses. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes to suit your needs.
An excellent option would be the Absco 1.52 x 0.78 x 1.8m Pale Eucalypt Organic Garden Co Aviary and I trust @mich1972 would be able to tell us if it was suitable for 2-4 chickens.
You might also be interested in these articles Ultimate guide to keeping chickens and What to consider for your very own chicken coop. There's a great step-by-step D.I.Y. tutorial on How to build A DIY chicken-coop which I trust you'll find interesting.
My coop is small but enough for six hens. They sleep / roost in their at night and they are fine. They also lay their eggs in there. I can get into to clean it out. It depends how you want to do it. The walk in aviary’s are good. I honestly prefer metal as it doesn’t harbour mites but that’s up to you. I will take another photo of the coop for you 🐓😊
not a big coop but works well with six girls 🐓😊
We have 7 chickens divided into 2 different yards, with their own coops in each yard.
First 4 are the older girls and they are let out daily to roam one half of our large back yard and I lock them up at night in a coop that is made from an old swing set frame covered in wire, which goes into a large box I made from pallets and that goes into part of a second hand pre-made coop where they sleep and lay eggs.
All my lower garden beds are covered with bird netting and sticks to raise it up, so the girls don't eat my vegies.
The other half of the back yard is separated with a chicken wire fence and that is for the dogs and my orchard and my orchard is fully enclosed with bird netting and a door to come and go.
I have 3, Platinum Sussex girls who just started laying last week and they live in the orchard and I have a basic coop that I made from scrap, which sits side on to the orchard and I made an opening so they can go in and out when they please. I then close that opening at night so they are secure in their coop.
They get let into the dog yard a couple of days a week and the dogs get kept in our alfresco so they don't bother the girls.
I have a chair and side table in the orchard and it's my favourite spot to just sit and have lunch while the 3 young ones peck around my feet.
Especially nice now as all the stone fruit have blossomed and all the other fruit trees are coming to life.
Love this !!! Would love to see some photos 😊🐓
Thanks for joining in the discussion @Aussie-Garden. Great to see the growing interest in backyard chooks from Workshop members and visitors alike. As Michelle has mentioned, it would be fantastic to see photos of your setup if you could share some.
I took a couple of photos today and will have a look at them later tonight.
It really is nothing special, so just lowering all your expectations now while I have the chance. 😛
Wing clipping was mentioned just recently.
None of ours are clipped.
We back onto a forest and national park and we went through a couple of weeks of getting one of the older girls out of trees behind us with a broom at night. 😂
We have farm fencing with mesh on 3 sides of our boundary, so they all stay in their yards, other that what I mentioned above.
Chicken Coop refresh. Snoozle, Charlie Charcoal and chopped up Wormwood. Wormwood is great for repelling Mites in the coop. I like to use Lavender and Rosemary too , but find the Wormwood is the best.
Nice! Looking good @mich1972.
Do they like to scratch around in it and how good is it for odour?
I dust the girls and their coops with Diatomaceous Earth occasionally to keep away the mites.
They absolutely love it @Aussie-Garden 🥰 laying straight into it. Coop smells good 😂 I use Biochar ( Charlie Charcoal ) so this helps deodorise the coop. I also use it in the run and the peck at it.
yes DE is good to use too. 😊
I am going to have to grow more Wormwood now 😄
Our beautiful Lemon Myrtle is flowering !! Australian Native edible . We have it growing in a pot in the Chicken Run. The fragrance when you crush the leaves is delightful 🐝🐝
Great photos @mich1972, many thanks for sharing.
Do you use it for cooking or teas at all?
Looks good @mich1972.
Back when I was a chef, cooking with native plants was not really a thing and was very uncommon.
I gave up that career a good 20 years ago now, and it's one thing I feel like I missed out on. Sure I can learn now, but it would have been great having access to so many brilliant ingredients like these back then.
Now back on the topic of chooks for a sec... I got two, 3 week old Speckled Sussex the other day.
Gorgeous little things and fingers crossed on them being girls. The guy who sexes them has about a 95% success rate apparently.
My last 3 Platinum Sussex from him were all girls.
Thank You @MitchellMc . No I have not. Tree is still young so I don’t want to take leaves off yet 😃
Thank You @Aussie-Garden !!! I love how we are becoming more aware of Bush Tucker !!
ohhhhhh I have got to see your little chicks !!!! I wish we had more space at home for more chickens 😂😍
