Cart 0

Keeping chooks - is it for you?

#chickens #keepingchooks #soapberries #organic #organiclaundry #natural #ecoliving #economical #raw #vegan #paleo #hypoallergenic #nochemical #wholefoods #zerowaste #thatredhouse #antibacterial #antifungal #chemicalfree #wastefree #gentle #compostable #allnatural

The delicious, sustainable and the stinky…

The delicious benefits…
There is nothing like eating your own backyard-laid butt nuggets #sorrynotsorry (that sounded way grosser than intended!). The freshness of home grown eggs cannot be compared with store bought - sometimes if you get them early enough, the delectable little guys are still warm. The intense flavour of home grown eggs will blow your mind, the yolks are a vibrant orange and they’re packed full of nutrients. Once your taste-buds have experienced home-grown, you won’t be able to go back to the cage-laid, pale yellow, hormone injected variety you find at the supermarket. It won’t even taste like an egg. #samesamebutveryverydifferent.

The sustainable angle…
Chooks help make us more sustainable in the kitchen and the garden – with no actual effort. #winning.
Offloading your food scraps to your little ladies, will not only make you shriek with delight as you see them frantically pecking a cavern to China at your left over risotto, it is also a great way to teach the kids about recycling food and saves you sending scraps to landfill. Food should not be included in your household bin as the decomposition process when in landfill creates greenhouse gases including methane #fartgas and contributes to global warming #notgood. If you don’t have room to keep some little brown hennies, then please get a compost bin – and return your scraps to the garden so they can break down properly and safely #beagoodcitizen.

The stinky, sloppy, messy (but still thumbs up environmentally) angle…
If you do keep chooks, one thing you will discover pretty quickly is they sh*t… A LOT!!!
And they don’t really have too many manners about it #rude. They don’t wait for a quiet moment behind the shed, they sh*t freely and confidently wherever the hell they feel like it! So if you want to keep your outdoor setting poop free or you don’t want a sloppy jaloppy on your back door step or in your gardening shoes, fence them in somewhere where they can’t wreak havoc on your stuff.
A lot of their poo ends up in the coop, which is an ah-mazing garden fertilizer… just make sure you compost it first, as in its raw form it will burn your plants due to its high nitrogen content.

Care factor…

So there are a few things to take into consideration when deciding whether or not keeping chickens is right for you and your family.
Housing – You’ll need a fox proof coop for them to roost at night. It doesn't need to be the Taj McChicken, but it will need to be fully enclosed. Foxes are sly sons of bitches and they don’t mind devising a plan, drawing a map and executing a well thought out kill. #assholes. Sometimes they have the balls to do this in broad daylight. Chooks are awesome pets and your family will quickly become attached to your feathered friends, Harriet doesn't need to see Henny Penny laying floppy, lifeless and possibly decapitated on the grass. I have witnessed this first hand. #traumatictowatch.
Food - Chooks eat scraps yes, but you will also need to buy grain for the little ladies… and they can eat quite a bit (as do the local birds and other wild #scabs).
Cleaning – Their coop can get quite feral, quite quickly, so you will need to make sure you clean it out regularly. This will ensure egg production stays on point and your ladies stay healthy (oh and the coop can get very stinky if you neglect it!)
Retrieval – You need to make sure you collect the eggs every day or so as if they’re left on the nest too long, the ladies can start turning on their eggs. #byturningwemeaneating

Feel good factor... 
Chickens make great pets and if you provide shelter, nutrition and water, they will give back butt nuggets, love and entertainment (they're bloody hilarious when they're in full on running mode and chase each other for the best scraps).

If you have the room, why wouldn't you?

 



Older Post Newer Post