Chooks
October 22, 2008
I never new that chooks were so entertaining. My six little red girls arrived last week and have been keeping me absolutely enthralled with their antics. The breed is New Hampshire, a fairly rare breed but I don’t know why, they’re apparently excellent layers and they are so friendly. These girls are only 2 months old so I won’t be seeing any eggs for a couple more months yet.
We converted an old calfing shed into a chook house. We’ve done our best to secure it and so far nothings broken in for some ‘chicken tonight’. The chook house has a small yard for them to free range, well it’s not too small, it’s probably the size of most new suburban homes backyards. Once they’re fully grown I’ll let them free range through the alpaca paddocks.
I’ve set aside another fenced pen to grow food for the chooks. It’ll be a no dig garden and I’ll start by growing sunflowers and legumes for them. I’ve also planted a passionfruit against the chook house which should insulate it as well as supplying them and us with delicious fruit.
I’ve also been looking into growing duckweed for chooks. It has a high protein content. I thought I had some growing in a trough near the hay shed but now I’m not sure what it is. I’ll try and get it identified somewhere and if it’s not duckweed I’ll hunt some down and grow it in a small trough in the chook pen garden to throw over the fence.
