Chickens ~ Chickens are amazing pets to keep whether you have a lot of room or just enough room for them to forage around. We have just enough room on our 450sqm block to fit in a decent size chicken coop and run for two. And while I’d like more chickens two will have to do for now. For years I’ve had chickens at different properties we’ve lived in but when I started the potager I knew I wanted chickens again as nothing beats the freshness of collecting eggs first thing in the morning.

Chickens are so friendly and love company, meaning they’re happy to follow you around while weeding or harvesting veggies, just be aware of the odd peck on the bum or on the toes if you happen to be barefoot or wearing thongs. I swear my girls think all toes are fat juicy worms waiting to be eaten. Chickens who are raised with plenty of room to roam, a good diet of seeds and a few spare spinach leaves, give the most beautiful eggs you’ll ever eat plus you can be happy knowing they haven’t been fed hormones to make them lay more at an unnatural rate. They also make great low maintenance pets for kids as they learn a lot from watching them in the early stages to when they start laying eggs and then of course the fun of collecting eggs each morning. Lets not forget the actual looking after them by cleaning out laying boxes and roosting areas and making sure water is changed regularly. Teaching kids to get involved gives them a sense of satisfaction and pride knowing they’ve helped look after defenseless animals that rely on our love and protection to keep them happy, healthy and safe.

Speaking of being safe, there are a few things to remember when keeping chickens and the main one is to keep them safe! It’s amazing how cunning foxes can be and they’ll stop at nothing to get into the pen to kill not one but all who get in their way. Make sure your pen, coop or house is secure especially in the evenings once your girls have gone to bed as that’s when they’re most vulnerable. During the day chickens spend a lot of time head down and bum up but they’re in tune with their surroundings and know when there’s a threat nearby. At bed time though, which is generally once the sun goes down they’ll toddle off to roost and put themselves to bed unaware of what’s lurking just outside their door. This is when you need to have a suitable house that you can close them in yet nothing can get in to get them. There are may different options on the market but if you have the means or a hubby who is great at building then design and make your own run to suit yours and your chickens needs. They’ll be safe from harm, love you for it and give you beautiful eggs each day to say thanks.

My girls are extremely cheeky and take every opportunity they can to escape from their run to forage around the backyard. This in itself isn’t too much of an issue until they decide to make a beeline for my climbing jasmine and pumpkins and dig up all the dirt from around the roots. So they’re allowed out to forage but under the strict supervision of my twelve year old daughter who loves the girls to bits. She will happily stand guard blocking their way to stop them from getting in where they’re not meant to go. I really do just need to get some sort of barrier for the garden but at the moment I have my own security guard who’s as quick as the chickens to stop them destroying my garden.

We bought our chicken coop that was just big enough for two from Bunnings and although we got the girls when they were 16 weeks old I soon realized that this little coop was not going to be big enough as they got older unless they were only using it to sleep in, which then meant they’d have to be outside foraging all day. And honestly the idea of constantly stepping in chicken poop and the idea of them getting into my veggie beds to destroy did not sit well with me. So I made another trip to Bunnings, bought some stakes, aviary wire, a metal trellis (to act as a gate) and a bunch of cable ties and rigged up my own run for my girls to give them more room to roam when they couldn’t be roaming outside alone. Within minutes of setting up he run we let the girls out and they loved having their own space and wasted no time tearing up the lawn too.

We’ve had our girls seven months now and they have been such great company, great source of entertainment always giving us a laugh at something strange and funny they do, amazing pets and producer of the most delicious eggs you’ll ever eat. While in the beginning I got them to complement the potager, for their eggs of course, they really have become an extension of the family just as a cat or dog would be. And while I’m always referring to them as ‘the girls’ they do indeed have names given to them by our kids. The boss and best layer is named Leia and my seven year old name her after a little girl in his class lol, I think mostly because Leia at school is so nice to him. Our second chicken, not the boss and often calls in sick and doesn’t lay an egg here and there is called Karen! Yes Karen and she was given this name by my twelve year old daughter the security guard. She named her Karen after Karen from Will & Grace and honestly this chicken embodies Karen to a tee so it was an amazing name choice by my daughter, she must’ve known instinctively this chicken was a Karen.

As our family continues our veggie growing and chicken laying ways we feel more and more like our suburban little town is more country again how it used to be 60 years ago. And while you can’t stop a town becoming a metropolis you can put your own stamp on things and bring a little country into your life by the way you do things. This has been my mission for 2020 and I’m looking forward to all the rustic changes I’ll be making in our small patch in 2021. As they say, Life is what you make it. So make it more how you want it to be and not what you think it should be. If you want to grow veg, grow veg. If you can’t keep chickens then find someone local who has chickens and give them a few dollars for a dozen each week. Where there’s a will there’s a way as my grandma would say, so get to it and bring that thing you long for into your life.

A bientot….Michelle x