Chooks

Originally posted by makingmoneystill ↑

good morning sierra

Ive had isa brown chooks for about 5 years now,

isa browns lay one egg each, every day of the year other than when they moult,

they moult for approximately a week or so,

my experience has shown that the isa browns lay extremely well for 3 years solid, after that the egg production drops of significantly,

in my opinion, its a false economy, if you spend way to much on chook feed and if you have chooks that don't produce eggs for you then you are feeding them for zero return,

so, at the 3 year stage we knock them all over the head and replace them with 4 new ones,

we dont run a rooster because i would make it disappear real fast if it woke me up at 3.00 a clock in the morning,

anyway, my chook pen is a 3 metre by 3 metre garden shed that we didn't use any more with a concrete floor inside, we extended with a 3 metre by 3 metre run that is dirt gravel, all closed in with wire over the top and shade cloth over the top of that,

the walls on the run are concreted into the ground about 2 foot down, and the tin wall is only about 60o mm high out the ground, we have two dogs and wanted to make sure that they didn't get hungry during the day, lol,

btw, if you don't cover it in then you will have a very big problem with crows coming in and eating the eggs and the chook feed,

our chooks are outside everyday free ranging through the back yard, if there were foxes around then we would have lost our chooks years ago,

ive forgotten to shut the door on the chook pen heaps of times, lol,

my feeders are made of pvc pipe which is 90 mm storm water pipe, they are 1.2 mteres long each with a screw on cap on the top, and elbows on the base as a bowl, i have two of them and they are screwed to opposite corners each,

very easy to make and zero maintenance,

all you do is unscrew the cap of the top and fill all the way to the top, then screw the cap back on and repeat with the next one one,

the two feeders with 4 chooks will last you around 3 months on a 20kg bag and from memory i think the layer pellets were about $20.00 for a bag,

the water in my chook pen is a 20 litre drum that i picked up on the side of the road on an easter weekend, you can get one from bunnings if you want, lol,

anyway onto the water container i put a lube cup drinker for the water, almost zero maintenance and the water container doesnt need filling for at least 3 months, so works well when you refill the feed and then refill the water,

okay, so now, you dont want to be that neighbour that is known as the rat and mouse breeder, so heres my solution for you,

go to bunnings get a 90 mm t piece storm water pipe, you will have had some left over pvc pipe, now, lay the long side of the t piece on its side and on each side glue in around 100 mm of pipe then cap both ends,

then drill a 25mm hole in each end with a spade drill bit, if you have done it right then all you have to do is unscrew the cap of the top side of the t piece fill it up with a box of rat sac, screw the cap back on, and place between two bricks anywhere on the ground in your chook pen,

the chooks cannot get accsess to the bait but the rats and mice can, its very easy to make and will cost around $6.00 that doesnt include the rat sac, and you will do the rat sac thing every year or you can do it twice a year just to make sure you are keeping a zero mice and rat population around you,

now the chook sheet on the floor is easy, around once a month or every 3 months, get your wheel barrow and shovel sheet into the barrow,

get onto gumtree and search for 1000 litre pods,

this is a bit harder to do so ill explain as easy as i can,

with the pod use a 125mm angle grinder, and cut the top 400mm of the top of the Gage and cut the top of the plastic liner the same,

now you will have three pieces, the plastic liner from the top, the cage from the top and the bottom cage/liner,

now turn the top liner over so it is upside down and place inside the liner, screw it into place and then line the inside of the liner with a piece of shade cloth that you have left over from when you placed shade cloth on the top of you chook pen, remember, lol,

now fill up the top of the liner with some soil and grass and hay etc, now this becomes your worm farm, now with your barrow load of chook sheet, throwit all in the top and give a mix through, go to bunnings and get yourself a box of 1000 worms, itll cost ya $50 bucks,

now if your growing vegies like me, your chooks give you eggs, your chooks give you chook sheet, your chook sheet gives you nutrients in the worm farm and then all you do is put a bucket or a watering can under the tap and turn it on and you then water your vegies with free nutrients,

oh and dont forget to make a conatainer for your vegie scraps, dont just throw the scraps onto the ground, as that will encourage the mice and rats, what you are trying to do is teach your chooks to eat the vegie scraps first and then they will use the feeders second,

hope that helps you,

btw, im getting rid of my isa browns later this year and im going to get australorps instead, only becasue australorps are a meat bird, and i find its a waste to dong the isas on the head and bury them,

so we will take the australorps all the way until they stop laying and then we will eat them, and replace with new ones,

im a farmer so i do my best not to waste anything and my kids and misuss are now starting to learn the same, those world vision ads that come on at dinner time every night have changed them, its about bloody time, the kids and missus have stopped wasting things and see it my way, its only taken 12 years for me to teach them the way of the land, lol,

all the best, if you have any questions im floating around, im not far away,

ive got my self a new samsung galaxy 8 so once i learn how to use it, ill post some pics of my setup,

oh and before i forget, you should be able to reduce your food bill by at least 85%, particularly if you eat seasonal like i do, and we dont have fruit trees either, it doesnt work, just have a look around when you go for a drive and see all the fruit going to waste, its far cheaper to buy what you want when you it from a farmers market,

cheers mate,

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Hi makingmoneystill,

Thanks for such an in depth post, it was very interesting. Some of the things I can't use because my shed and pen are well established now but one of your ideas I certainly intend to copy and adopt.
The photos were good so you got the hang of the new phone all right.

I know what to look for in a chook pen after building one and you certainly weren't tight with the screws and staples etc. They should have got you to build the WTC, then towers would still be standing[unless they really did use energy beams?].

After spending $1,500 on the chook shed and fixing up the fence to the pen my egg costing is out of the window anyway. Add to that, with 4 eggs a day I give away more than I can eat. I get far more out of giving them away than selling them and they're so good they are really appreciated.
My chooks will live their lives out here after they stop laying. I'll get another 4, probably Isa Browns like yours and introduce them to the old girls when the time comes.

The crows checked them out in the sneaky manner they specialise in but are chased out fast if they actually go into their 12m x 12m pen. The shed can only be accessed through that small side door/ramp and their feed and water is inside. The laying boxes are over the back where it's pretty dark because I now spread hay over most of the mesh floor to keep them warm at night and to trap all the crap. That works really well and one bale looks like lasting for about a year.

Your feeders got my attention straight away. That's such a simple but effective design. Well done! I'll be making one of those and from the pics can see you use 1 x 90deg and 1 x 45deg elbow at the bottom. I fact I'll make 2 and give one to my neighbour that looks after my chooks while i'm away, for his chooks. The rest is clear too.
I bought a smaller version of your water feeder but find the red bowl gets full of feed from their beaks and is a pain to keep clean. How do you clean that bigger one?

There are no mice or rats in the pen yet but when there are i'll set a trap for them with cheddar cheese after I shut the girls in for the night. That way I can toss the mouse or rat on the ground for them to eat.

Because I use hay on the mesh floor, about once a month I clean it all out and spread it around their pen. They dig it all in and combined with the good soil they have 144sqm of hunting territory to keep them busy all day. The worms that are already in the soil must like it in that pen until they get found by the chooks.

I'm not a strict vegetarian and buy an occasional Mt Barker hot roast chook. For the record I now take Vitamin B12 every day because after 5 years my B12 levels were depleted from not eating red meat.

I've tried growing veggies but it's too labour intensive for me. I've planted perennials to harvest from, that suits me better. Walnut, Pecan, Chestnut, Macadamia, Locat, Apricot, Passion Fruit, Avacdo, Mandarin and Fig so far and early days.

I envy you your lifestyle and family. I wish I had adopted a similar lifestyle earlier on and the benefits it would have brought to my children. Those are the best years and you only get one shot at it.

Thanks again!