Getting started - essential - get some chooks!

After all my reading and research, I decided to purchase one of each of the following breeds:

• Barnevelder
• Light Sussex
• Plymouth Rock
• Silver-gray Dorking
• Welsummer

Unfortunately, the Plymouth Rock and Silver-gray Dorking died within the first month, but the other birds are growing fast. I purchased two replacement birds - an Aracana and a Black Leghorn.

Getting started - shed, food, etc...

Long before you actually get chooks, you need to get organised. Here is a list of things to do before you actually go out on a Saturday to your neighbourhood poultry breeder and pick up half a dozen chooks.

This list is from my own experience and is not in a particular order.

• Go to you local agricultural show and have a look at the chooks to see which ones you like. Also talk to people there about chooks and what they are involved in – breeders, fanciers (people who show poultry), backyard keepers, etc. tell them what you want to do and ask them about their birds and breeds.
• While you are at the show, have a look for fowl houses – are you going to build or buy your fowl house? Also, talk to people about feed and the best feed and places locally where you can buy it. Don’t buy supermarket feed – it’s very expensive and your chooks deserve better.
• Read and research – read my recommendations, Australasian Poultry magazine, small farm magazines, Google “poultry”, have a look at my links… Keep reading until you are comfortable that you have enough knowledge and information to be a successful poultry keeper.
• Talk to your neighbours about what you are thinking about doing – you can promise them eggs if it helps win them over.
• Check out the local laws and what you lawfully keep in your local council area – for example, in the City of Yarra I can keep 5 birds under specific conditions, but in the City of Stonnington you can’t keep poultry at all (mean buggers)
• Decide where you are going to put your fowl house, and what fence arrangements you are going to have. Remember that chooks will eat your entire backyard if you let them.
• Visit poultry breeder and talk to them about breeds and availability of birds you are interested in keeping – you may need to reserve stock if it is the wrong time of the year. Don’t just buy the first birds that come along – buy what you want, when you want it.
  
  I could go on, but that enough for now.

Australasian Poultry Magazine June/July 2006 out now

Australasian Poultry Magazine is now on sale. This is a great magazine for anyone interested in poultry. I can recommend it highly.

Ask at your local newsagent – if they don’t have it, ask them to get a copy from the distributors, Gordon & Gotch.



And here is the subscription information for Australasian Poultry Magazine.

Getting started - more reading - Jackie French's Chook Book

Jackie French's Chook Book is available from Dymocks.

This is a lighter read than the last two books, but none the less full of good practical advice and recipes!

Jackie French loves chooks.

There's nothing more beautiful than a mob of White Leghorns like sailing ships flying with the wind, comfortable Australorps in their fluffy black knickers dedicatedly sifting through the old tomato bed far insects and titbits, or a tribe of Rhode Island Reds scratching under the lavender.

Read this book, and you`ll love chooks too:

- love to keep them, scratching in your own backyard, and
- love to eat them, prepared from one of the many mouth-watering chicken and egg recipes you'll find between these covers.

Getting started - reading - A Guide to Keeping Poultry

A Guide to Keeping Poultry by Dorothy Reading.

This was the first book I read about keeping poultry. It is available from Dymocks. A great general and practical read about chooks.

A Guide to Keeping Poultry is a standard reference for Australian poultry keepers. Written by an experienced poultry farmer, this book gives detailed descriptions of the various breeds of fowls, ducks, turkeys and geese that can be bred in a domestic or farm environment. It contains clear, practical information about: housing, care, feeding and flock management; breeding, hatching and showing poultry; egg and meat production; handling produce; dealing with broody hens and `flighty' birds; and problems such as eggs without shells, cannibalism and disease. An up-to-date State-by-State directory lists government departments and independent organisations that can assist the poultry keeper. All readers will find A Guide to Keeping Poultry an invaluable source of information whether they are interested in a few daily eggs for the family or production for profit.

Getting started - start reading - Backyard Poultry - Naturally

Stop - before you buy chooks, sheds, feed, anything!

Go out and buy some books about poultry and read them at least twice, and then sit down at your PC and start browsing some of the sites dedicated to poultry and poultry keeping. I am no expert, but I think this saved me time, money and kept my chooks alive and happier.

I can highly recommend Backyard Poultry - Naturally by Alanna Moore.

I purchased my copy from the Victorian Government Bookshop in Collins Street, Melbourne.

What's the difference between a Frizzle and a Fav? a Pekin and a Polish? a Welsummer and Wyandotte? How do you successfully determine the sex of day-old chickens? What natural products can be used to treat lice infestation? And what should you do if a broody hen won't get off the nest to feed? Backyard Poultry - Naturally answers all these questions and more. From housing to feeding, from selection to breeding, from pets to production, and from the best lookers to the best layers, the book covers everything the backyard farmer needs to know about poultry husbandry - including preventative and curative herbal medicines and homeopathics.

Backyard Poultry - Naturally is an excellent resource. It is entertaining and informative, and will appeal to amateur and avid poultry farmers alike.

Alanna Moore has taken her own extensive experience of herbal medicine and backyard poultry farming and used it to produce a very compact and readable reference.

Why chooks?

It all started when I was a child...

I was never allowed to have any pets - our family never had cats, dogs or fish... My mother hated anything with fur, scales or feathers.

But why chooks? I go to the Royal Melbourne Show almost every year, and always make a point of going to the Poultry sheds first - I could stay all day, but kids drag me away to buy lolly bags. I love chooks, the look of them, the sounds they make, even the smell!

So, I decided to become a backyard chook keeper.

At the Show there were chook sheds on display, and I decided which one to get - see my later post about where I got my "fowl house". All I had to do was get rid of the kids cubby house (which was hardly used) and install the chook shed in the space.

This is my chook shed in situ!

And this is the interior...