Occupation chook

As I have mentioned in recent posts, the chook house is now being occupied. We put the chooks in their new home over a week ago and kept them inside the coop entirely for the first few days. As we did not have the chook run constructed at this time, we figured that this would be for the best plus they could get used to this being their new home. It was lots of "fun" capturing the chooks to put them in. Particularly Rusty, as he does not like being caught and is very good at evading capture these days (fox attacks probably have this kind of impact on chooks).

We changed the colour of the paint on the outside of the nest boxes. Although I preferred the original colour, it absorbed too much heat. The new sandy desert colour is significantly cooler. Since we want the chooks to lay as opposed to bake, I figured that colour co-ordination was much less important. In case anyone is wondering why we even considered the darker colour in the first place, it was mistinted paint at half price. We thought it might be too dark and it was. Thankfully the new colour was free, compliments of Mr HHH.










The person door (820 mm wide) was acquired from our local transfer station. As the chook door frame width is only 600 mm, the door had to be cut down to size along the bottom and on one side. It is a hollow door, so I used a very old can of expanding foam to fill in the two cut sides. So while it looks like there should be more door, it works just fine.

The two chook doors were constructed in a similar fashion to the nest box lids, with fibre cement on the outside and ply on the inside. The doors have gate latches on them so that they lock securely when closed. Actually the nice thing about them is that they are large enough for even me to fit through. This has already been handy when we put up a temporary divider within the coop as I did not want the chickens to "own the place". I was stuck on the other side of the divider and exited through the chook door (ever so gracefully of course).

We also made a perch and a perch-type access to their nest boxes. The two perches were made from a feral Jacaranda tree; while it is not as good as a camphor laurel timber, one less feral tree is still a good thing. Now the sad thing is that they are not using their nest boxes, nor their perch. They are big birds and I guess it does take them time to adjust to new things, but they could appreciate the handy work a bit more now couldn't they?! We got three eggs on the second day, so even though they are laying on the floor, this has not impacted their output. Thanks girls.

The remaining coop to-do items are weather strips over the two chook doors, installation of the guttering and down piping, attaching siding along the western roof edge for greater stormy weather protection, and a permanent divider between the two parts of the chook shed.

It is worth noting that in the construction of the chook shed, a significant portion of the materials were recycled. Some of the recycled material used was the roofing iron, roofing channels, ply wood, doors, sisalation, metal strapping, guttering, 6 mm fibre cement, nails, wood piers, tension rod, and some of the roofing screws. The new materials used were screws, hinges, door latch, cement, compressed fibre sheeting for the floor, most of the framing wood, some of the paint, and silicone sealant. So I am pleased that this project has helped to reduce some of the waste which could have ended up in landfill.

By the way, if anyone has any suggestions on a name for the chook coop, please post it in the comments.

BOGI Day Out

Not only are we in the process of building a dam and putting the finishing touches on the chook coop (yes, I need to do another post on this), we also had an open garden for Brisbane Organic Growers Inc (BOGI).

Today turned out to be a nice sunny day. I was not sure if the weather would hold as we had just under 10 mm of rain overnight and early in the morning. However the sun came out well before the event.

The tour started at the rose garden with its pineapple border and edible hibiscus. The edible hibiscus was a hit, with many people requesting a cutting. We continued on to the citrus grove which is located over the sub-surface irrigation for the treated effluent coming from our Aqua Nova system. Just below the irrigated area are bananas, sweet potatoes, raspberries, pumpkins, Jerusalem artichoke, and a persimmon tree.

We continued over to the forest of asparagus, past the passionfruit, and on to the main event, the vegie garden. I showed them how the grass paths broke down over time creating a lovely rich soil and explained how the majority of the garden beds is basically compost. I also touched on some learning experiences relating to a bit too much deco in the garden beds (which seems to cause the beds to dry out faster).

I also explained how the banana pit was made, including the amount of on-the-spot composting it required. The new chook shed was also presented including its inhabitants.

Finally we finished off with an afternoon tea. There is nothing like spending an afternoon chatting about gardening with a great bunch of people and enjoying some tasty treats!

Put a lid on it

And so I did. The nest boxes now have lids attached utilising four strap hinges per box. Due to the slope on the nest box, the strap hinges had to go on top of the bracing, as opposed to below. This caused some issues once the metal sheeting was placed above the nest boxes. But this was fixed by cutting about 25 mm off of the bottom of the sheeting. So now the nest box lids can be opened fully. The black flashing will prevent any water from getting inside.

I have to say that I preferred the look of the coop before the sheeting above the nest boxes was put in. But the sheeting will reduce the solar penetration. We'll see if I need to make any adjustments to improve the air flow. It would be cool to have openings which could lift up and hook onto the underside of the roof. However I will not go down that road for now.

I was slightly paranoid after the random planter made a comment about the nest boxes getting hot. So I put a thermometer inside the boxes. The good news is that the temperature does not seem to be any different from a shaded side of the coop. But the true test will be during the heat and humidity of summer.

Still a few more items to complete (such as some paint) before the move in date, but we are getting close. :)

We now have two hens which have gone broody, so it will be good for them to have a proper place to sit.

The Coop Case - Progression Beyond Framing

There has been further progression with the coop case. Material evidence has been presented for all to see. So impressed was the jury, that the material has been left in place. Although the case development took a turn for the worse when a key piece of evidence did not fit the crime scene. This almost resulted in the case coming unhinged. Although this was a setback to the case, other supporting material is still to be presented. With any luck, Rusty and the egg laying gang will be ready for lock up in another week or so.

TRANSLATION: I sourced the wrong darn hinges for the nest box lids. So after trying to figure out how the impossible would fit on, I consulted with the builder of the Hen House Hilton and asked what he used. Apparently I need to get some long narrow strap hinges as opposed to the non-mortise hinges which I tried to use.

Chickens Framed

Shocking allegations have come forth that local Maculata Grove chicken residents have been framed. Photographic evidence has been presented which clearly shows the group's mastermind, Rusty, at the centre of the controversy. When requested for a comment all Rusty's lawyer would say was "It's a coop".

It is hoped that further progress of this case can be made for all involved.

Childhood Dream

One of the great things I love about living a more sustainable lifestyle is seeing my daughter experience and taste what life has to offer. She is a little over 15 months old and just loves being outside and seeing things around the garden.

We have the main food garden area fenced off primarily from the chooks, but it also helps keep Felicity from helping a little too much. But whenever she gets a chance, she will slip through the chicken wire gate with a giggle, go right past the garlic while heading straight for the curly-leafed lettuce. Thankfully for the lettuce, she only pats it. However if one is unlucky enough to be a tomato, well you won't be spending much more time on the vine. Although recently she has learned that the red ones are best for picking and eating.

Felicity loves to share. She will offer her partially enjoyed tomatoes to Mom and Dad, or even to the chooks. Felicity also enjoys sitting down with the chooks and sampling some of their food. Amazingly, this doesn't phase them including Rusty the rooster. I guess even the chooks have learned that life is about sharing.

Chicken dance

A proper chook coop is long over due. While we have not had the chooks for that long, I had wanted to build a chook coop at the end of last year or beginning of this year at the latest. Of course things have not gone quite according to my idealist schedule. Our little girl often has that kind of impact on plans.

Although in reality, the biggest issue with progression of the chook coop was the design plans. The location for the coop is in an area which gets quite wet during heavy rain falls. Even though Rhode Island Reds are a hardy breed, I do not feel that it is all that nice to have them in damp conditions. Thus this meant either a concrete slab or raised chicken coop.

I really liked the idea of a raised chook coop, particularly after seeing one of the members of the Samford Local Growers constructions. His design was based on a BuildEazy chook coop design with a few tweaks such as a flat roof design. The dimensions for my coop are 3.6m by 1.8m, so I am doubling the size of the basic plans. This is so that I can divide the coop into two sections for future purposes.

With a raised coop design, I figure that rats and mice will have a hard time getting access to the interior. I also plan to allow the chooks access to underneath the chook coop as part of their main run, thus it will provide valuable shade during the heat of the summer.

There is still a fair bit of work to complete as only the platform of the coop in place. But at least in the mean time it will allow my little girl a great place to perform her chicken dance.

Rejoining the flock

Our injured hen has made an amazing recovery. She, along with the rest of the flock, had been attacked by a fox. She was the worst off by far, unable to move that much. She was able to lay an egg on the second or third day after the injury. If a hen has an egg on the way and is unable to lay it, then this can cause death; thus the appearance of the egg was a welcome site.

After the first week of recovery, she was able to visit the other chickens for short durations. I am sure that this helped her mentally, even if Rusty did attempt to get a bit amorous with her.

Finally after two weeks since the attack, her health improved enough so that she was able to roost with the others. So Rusty now has his full harem of girls back.

We got some coloured bands for the hens several days ago. We gave the colour red to the injured hen as it seemed appropriate. We also have orange, blue, and green bands. We have decided that these colours are now the names for the hens.

Fox attack

A week ago our flock of chooks were attacked by a fox. We had gone over to a neighbours place to drop off some garden produce and by the time we got back the sun had set behind the mountains. Unfortunately this was more than enough time for the fox to do some damage. I first saw evidence of the attack with the heaps of feathers around. Then after getting a torch, I was able to locate Rusty our rooster. He has lost a large area of feathers in front of his beautiful tail feathers. We were able to locate two of the hens, one of which was quite injured. However after lots of searching the other two hens were no were to be seen. We thought that they were fox food.

Thankfully the missing hens had the good sense to make a very long dash to one our other neighbours. This would have been a good 600m or so. They had put them safely in a cage and called later that evening. So we were able to collect them and bring them back home where they slept in the shed.

The next day, three of the hens were no worse for wear, even with some feather loss. Rusty however was very lethargic and did not eat or drink much. The injured hen was even worse than Rusty, having problems standing up and moving; let alone eating or drinking. So she was kept in a box inside.

We moved the chicken house inside the shed for the next few nights. Rusty rapidly recovered and started working the girls and crowing again. This included early morning crowing from within the shed (not a good way to wake up). So for the last couple of nights the chook house was put outside again.

Things were not looking that good for the injured hen as it was only in the third or fourth day that she started eating and drinking again. Her movement improved, but it is still messed up. I suspect that the fox got her by the neck and did some nerve damage. Anyway we will continue to attempt nursing her back to health. However she only has a month to recover tops, after that it is the stock pot. Hopefully it will not come to that.

What water shortage?

Things had been a bit dry the last month or so. The soil had started to crack in places and the lawn was going brown. That all changed a couple of days ago. Now everything is saturated including the garden. Our rain gauges have not been able to keep up, so we have had well over 160 mm. Based on the depth of the water in some of the buckets, it has been closer to 300 mm of rain.

Our poor chooks have been getting quite wet. We had put the chook house on top of some piles of dead grass last night in order to help them get higher. I certainly need to build the permanent chook house.

I had been doing some research into getting a dam pump and a new rainwater tank. I think that we will just go for another rainwater tank (5000 gal) until we get some of the dams built. With a new tank our water storage capacity will be around 15000 gallons or 68100 litres. That *should* be heaps of water to last a several months of no rain and being able to irrigate the main veggie garden. However once I get more fruit and nut trees in, the water from dams will be critical to successful growth.

I went for a walk this morning around the property and the area. There were rapids in a couple of spots along the creek in our gully. Very tempting to get my kayak out and do some playing the in the white water.



UPDATE:
I have uploaded a video of the creek as it exits the Maculata Grove property. As can be seen and heard, there are fairly significant rapids being generated.

Chook Breed Research

Like many new things I do, I usually do a fair bit of research upfront. In this case choosing a chicken breed was particularly important as they are live animals who need care and housing.

Our requirements were to get a breed which was dual purpose. That is, they can be used for producing eggs and meat. As the males do not produce eggs, they are expensive to keep around for no food-related benefit. Since we plan on breeding our own chickens, we will undoubtedly end up with many surplus cockerels. Speaking to some members of the Lawnton Poultry Club, more than 50% of fertilised eggs develop into males.

In addition, given that we are planning on eating surplus birds, we want a chicken that has a bit of meat. Thus bantams are out.

So with those requirements our choice was narrowed down a fair bit. After a bit more research I found the following high level dual purpose breed breakdown:

• general purpose breeds: Houdan, Dominique, Wyandotte, Sussex, Oprington, Plymouth Rock (aka Rocks or Barred Rock)
• better for eggs: Australorp, Rhode Island Red
• better for meat: Langshan and New Hampshire

Of the breeds listed above, I was starting to lean towards Rhode Island Red, Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire, Australorp, or Wyandotte based on reading various blogs and other information, including the ability to acquire the breed in Australia.

However when it came time to choose, I found the site http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html to be the most beneficial as it provided a tabular comparison of all the breeds. There is also a shorter dual purpose table, but I have not provided the link.

In Australia, the Rhode Island Red, Australorp, and Wyandotte breeds are more common, thus generally not as dear as the others.

In the end, our decision to go with the Rhode Island Red breed over others was their egg laying capability, hardiness, large size, excellent temperament, free range or containment adaptability, and attractive plumage (i.e. not simply one single colour). As a bonus we found out that due to their size, they cannot fly that well. Thus even short fences present a significant hurdle to them. This has already been handy during the process of fencing of the veggie garden from their incursion.