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​Good Scraps Produce Great Eggs

Collect greens and unwanted fruit and veg from your local fruit shop (organic if you can). Many bread shops will sell you their day old bread cheaply (a local one near me sells a 20kg flour sack for $20). Chooks DO need proper pellets and/or grain in addition to any scrap veggies or bread. Make sure there is no mouldy bread as this can cause illness. Ask your neighbours for their food scraps (mine now keep a 'chook' bucket). Put a food scraps bucket with a lid in the kitchen at work.
​- Contributed by Claire Smith, 10th January 2013

​Happy Chooks, Happy Chook-keeper!

I have been a happy chook keeper for many years. I picked up an old bird aviary (about 1.2m X .8) from a garage sale for $20 brought it home, and my dear hubby made a few welds, put in a timber perch and found an old timber fruit box that fits along the wall as a laying box. Good shelter is a necessity. Feed wise, I found a large stock feed and produce place that runs 2 bag minimum purchase deals on layer pellets. Check in your local yellow pages where yours is. Two 25kg bags fit into a 60 litre rubbish bin to keep the rats and mice at bay. If your chicks have plenty of area to free range and get the table scraps, layer pellets should be a complete feed. My current rescue hens are Isa Browns, so I do feed them a tin of Homebrand dog food once a month, as they need a little more protein than most breeds (chooks are omnivours - meat and veg.) I also make sure they have access to shell grit to keep their egg shells stable and well formed - for six chooks I use about a handful a week mixed in their pellets. Fresh water is a must and instead of using chemical worm and pest control, 2 cloves of garlic crushed into an 8 litre waterer once a week keeps them healthy. There are a variety of diseases carried by sparrows and the like, and I have seen transference in other people's birds, but I've never lost a bird since using garlic. I feed using an automatic feeder that holds about 9kg and only needs refilling every week to ten days for my six. This minimizes waste, but other birds can feed from it. There are a couple of companies around that make step-on feeders, (Grandfathers Chook Feeder is one) that prevent other birds from taking feed, but are expensive to buy and I've never come across a second hand one, and birds need to be trained to use them - it only takes a week or so. My hen house is not fixed to the ground, only pegged down, so I can lift and move it easily and quickly for cleaning on a regular basis, another way to keep them healthy, and the manure is great for the garden if you bag it and let it rot down or compost it. Once you get the hang of it, it's not hard and is great fun. Most chooks become familiar enough with their owners that they will happily follow them around the garden. Mine enjoy the company of my two dogs and all eight follow me all around the place. Hope this helps! Happy Chook Keeping!
​ - Contributed by Shirley Sprenger, 10th January 2013

​Build a Chook Tractor

This is not exactly what you were after but it will make a big difference to how much you feed them! Gardening Australia used to have a construction plan for a portable henhouse, it has wheels on one end and handles on the other, so you can move it around like a wheelbarrow. Moving the henhouse around with this once a week, means they get a new patch to eat the bugs and weeds out of ( and fertilize )each week meaning you need to feed them less. even if your hens are free range and only use the hen house at night, they will still benefit from the new patch every few weeks.
​- Contributed by Denise Scotford, 13th September 2012

​The Best Food for Your Chooks

Proprietary chook food had a balanced mix of grains etc. and is actually cheaper than trying to blend your own. It is much better for commercial layers who are very hungry most of the time. What you can do is supplement their food with things such as porridge (cheapest no brand oats are fine), day old bread is often cheap at bakeries (not to be used as main source of food), ask your local fruit and veg shop to keep all their spoiled fruit and veg and the outer leaves of lettuce, cabbage etc. A few friends and I collect from an organic grocery and the girls eat delights such as watermelon, pawpaw, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, banana, apple, pear, and corn . Let them free range to collect bugs, worms etc. and rid your garden of some pests including weeds. Another friend and I collect milk thistle, dandelion, long grass etc. for them while out on our daily walk. Enjoy them as they all have personalities and provide much amusement
​- Contributed by Claire Smith, 13th September 2012

​Grow Your Own Chook Food

I found a lovely article on growing your own chook food on a web site called www.motherearth.com You will need to troll the articles to find it. It's American and is their version of Earth Garden. I have a 44 gallon drum cut in half length wise and I grow wheat in the two halves and while one is growing they are eating the other. Another idea is to have a two-way chook pen; while the chooks are in one side grow green plants in the other side e.g. oats, wheat, sorghum etc. and when grown transfer the chooks over and grow in the other side.
- Contributed by Robyne Neal, 14th September 2012
​ Website: www.motherearth.com

​Supplement with Grains and Seeds

I too have some 'pets with benefits' and find a mix of cracked corn, wheat, sunflowers seeds and some other goodies from a feed merchant - 20kg for $20 - is brilliant! This I supplement with scraps AND they keep the grass down! and I get eggs every day!
​- Contributed by Ade Karmouche, 13th September 2012

​Don't Forget the Shell Grit

We make a mix up of wheat, sorghum, cracked corn and sunflower seeds, bought from the local bulk seed place at a ratio of 1:1:0.25:0.01. Chooks don't take too well to barley. Sometimes, we add 50% chook pellets to the mix. Don't forget the shell grit (from the beach or the local rural store). This works out about 50cents/kg. With the pellets about $1.00/kg. All depends on your local prices. Hope this helps.
​- Contributed by Sally Coverdale, 13th September 2012

​Keeping Your Own Chickens Has so Many Benefits

Approximate $ Savings: $506

I have four chooks, and a rooster. I get between two and four eggs each day. Most days I get three eggs. Over a year that adds up to one thousand and ninety-two eggs! My chooks are Rhode Island Reds which lay big eggs too! To buy a dozen free range large eggs you can pay anywhere around $6 or more. At $6 per dozen, one thousand and ninety-two eggs would cost $546. The initial cost of setting up was $16 each for the pullets, $20 for layer pellets, and $17 for 'scratch mix'. My partner is a builder and used all recycled materials to build the coop so that cost me nothing. You can pick up a small portable coop for about $100-$150. All up I will save approximately $506 per year. Chooks drink a lot of water, but that costs me nothing as I give them fresh tank water. I was fortunate enough to be given a few bags of wheat, so the feed I bought has lasted me nearly twelve months now. They get all my kitchen scraps too, which minimises the amount of pellets and wheat I need to feed them. The chooks are not only good for eggs (which I love to share with family, friends and neighbours), they are also great for fertiliser for the veggie garden, and they are great at breaking up hard soil with their scratching. Another bonus is they eat all the snails I find in my garden - which they just love! Chooks also bring a sense of relaxation and are great to just sit and watch. They are beautiful, gentle, low maintenance animals. I don't know how I ever lived without my lovely girls! ...and the constant supply of delicious, free range eggs!
​- Contributed by Kate, Marulan, 30th October 2009

​Healthy Chooks Lay Better Eggs

Approximate $ Savings: $30-$60 a year

Need calcium for the chooks so they lay eggs that don't break easily. Just keep the eggshells you've already used and crush them. Once a week or every other week add them to the chooks food scraps and they will continue to lay eggs with harder shells. Saves on rubbish waste as well.
​- Contributed by Debbie, New Beith, 17th March 2009

​Unwanted Bills Become Chook House Mulch

I shred any unwanted bills or paper materials I receive in the mail and then place it in our chook house instead of using straw/mulch. It not only gets rid of the unwanted mail but helps in the chook house for them to keep warm and lay eggs on, which I then take the eggs to work for cheap sale helping cover the cost of the food for the chooks.
​- Contributed by Cindy, Raywood, 23rd July 2007

​One Chook, Four Products

Get one chook per family member (council regulations to be considered), feed them your vegie scraps and get beautiful free range eggs and fertiliser for your lawn, roses and garden, well being for yourself and kids and a comedy act to boot. They have such personality if you interact with them. One of ours likes to peck my freckles off my legs, one chases the birds and guinea pigs. Aint laughter the best medicine? And you can be eco friendly and top up your compost with unwanted foodstuffs and then dig it into the vegie patch
​ -Contributed by Narelle, Rockhampton, 17th April 2008

​Keep the Chooks Happy

Even chickens can benefit from vinegar, pour a little in their water can stop the 'pecking order' damage that is inflicted, it also assists in their growth.
​ - Contributed by Heather, Clagiraba, 26th September 2009