Chickens in the Back Yard

I never intended to keep hens in my backyard, but I'd just moved into a new house, and had heaps of space. Besides, my sister had a few hens and a couple of ducks, and I liked the idea of the hens eating grubs and insects in the garden.

What I didn't actually think about was what the hens would to to my newly planted seedlings, and my veggie patch. There was some very hurried fencing done in the early days, that's for sure.

To start with, the hens were put into a small box overnight, inside a pen about 6ft x 3 ft x 3ft. Not that large, but they did have the run of the backyard during the day, so had plenty of exercise.

Eventually, I built a proper coop and pen for them, around a tree, so that they had shade all day if necessary. The tree liked getting the manure too!

Actually, eggs aren't in short supply, we are totally eggless!

Why? Because the hens are moulting, and have been for a few weeks now. We'll be glad when it's over, and they start laying again.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait until the end of winter for that to happen, as it's only the beginning now. They are well fed, and are given warm food on occasions, so they should be starting to lay again in a few weeks.

If they don't, guess we'll have to either wait patiently until they do, or do more research on tips to get them started again. Bought eggs just don't seem the same.

Keeping hens can help the environment, but they can also wreck your garden.

When I first got a couple of hens, I went outside to plant a couple of dozen flower seedlings in the new garden outside the bedroom window.

When I looked around, there were the two new hens, proudly pulling up and eating the new plants! I was not impressed, to put it mildly, and of course, they were locked in their pen until I'd finished the job, and also put some protection around the garden.

Hens are, of course, much used in permaculture, although it's not something I've gone into very deeply. You can find more about it here.

Their manure is a great fertilizer, once it is dried out - it's too strong at first. Chicken manure is very strong in nitrogen, which all gardens need, but don't overdo it.

A way I use to spread it around is add about a cupful of poo to a bucket of water, and leave it to mature for a few days - it's a good idea to do this quite far from the house! The mix can then be spread thinly over the ground.

If you have a compost bin, then some manure added to it will serve to enrich the compost as it breaks down.

Usually I give the manure away, as I have far too much for my own needs, but that's a plus, as it helps other peoples' gardens too.

Chickens can pay for themselves in other ways besides giving you enough manure for your garden - they lay GREAT fresh eggs! That's what I call "Paying the Rent" and my current two are very good at it.

Of course, they ARE very well fed and well, let's admit it, spoiled..... but what else are pets for?

My partner has a sort of love/hate relationship with the hens. He keeps them under control more than I do, as I used to let my hens jump onto my lap to be fed. Of course, this had some consequences.....

We were sitting outside one day having lunch, not really taking much notice of the hens wandering around us. He was sitting with half his roll in his hand, but it was about knee high to the ground.

Suddenly, a white streak grabbed the roll, and took off, followed by the black hen. Both hens proceeded to have a beautiful feast of ham roll at his expense.

Ever since, of course, any hens we've had are called "The Vandals".

On a couple of occasions, my girls have had a problem with laying their eggs. On the worst occasion, I thought I was going to lose one of them, as she just couldn't pass the egg, and was suffering terribly.

I tried to use petroleum jelly to help, and massaged
her a little, and it seemed to do the trick, because shortly afterwards, she passed a broken egg. It took her several days to recover and start laying again, poor thing.

After some research, it seems that free calcium in the diet is a good preventative measure for eggbinding, and it's easy to provide also. Another cause of the problem is overfeeding, but cutting down on the grain. especially corn, and feeding more greens can fix that.

One very good way to provide the calcium in the diet that hens require is bones. That's right, bones! The girls love smashed bones, and are always trying to get their heads under the hammer when I'm preparing the bones for them. Sometimes I have to lock them up to protect them from themselves.

Any old bone will do, from the leftover dinner, to ancient dogbones found in the garden. All that's necessary is to smash them into small enough pieces for the hens to eat. They really enjoy anything with marrow left in it too.

Since using this method, I've never had an eggbound chicken, touch wood! As an added bonus, it also solves the problem of how to dispose of bones.

For the past few days, it's been really hot here in Melbourne, so I wasn't surprised when there were no eggs in the chicken coop. I thought they were taking a break.

Recently, we've been pruning some of the trees and shrubs in our front garden, and the branches have been put in a pile in the backyard, waiting for us to mulch them.

Yesterday, I decided to check under and around this pile, just in case the hens had decided to lay there. They have a history of finding strange places to lay, and one girl loved the compost bin.

Just as well I checked - there were the last three or four days worth of eggs, half a dozen of them, nicely laid in a cozy little dip in the ground, under the branches.

My hens are becoming very good at hiding eggs from us. The sooner the mulching gets done, the better, but at least it's a nice clean place. :-)

Last weekend, we went away to the hills for an overnight stay. Usually when we do this, we leave the chickens locked in their pen, with extra food, but feel mean doing it. This time, we decided to leave them free in the back yard, and see how it went.

From now on, when we go away, they'll have the freedom of the backyard, because they'd obviously put themselves to bed in the coop (I had to clean it out as usual) when they were ready, and were clucking happily around on our return.

Usually when we go away for a holiday, they are shut up except for the short time each day when my sister or my niece come over to feed them, but since they came to no harm, why not let them stay free?

They will still be checked up on every day, and it will be much healthier for them. Of course, I'm not too sure about the plants in the garden's safetly! LOL