Kia ora from Dunedin, New Zealand :-)

[AmyNZ]

Hi everyone, I have just gotten me some back yard chickens and I thank you for the information you share through this site. I have found it Immensely helpful. I decided to get chickens for many reasons, a)to keep my growing son well stocked with eggs, b)a job for my daughter to do to earn jer pocket money, c) to make use of an area of yard that was not being utilised to its full potential, d) and to clean up the food scraps my young children would otherwise waste. Hasn't quite worked out that way yet. My chickens have been maulting since I got them so no eggs yet, and I have become so chickrn obsessed that my girl has so far only been allowed to feed them the odd bowl of scraps now and then. Oh well plenty of time yet, but after a month and no eggs these chickens are starting to look like well cooked drumsticks to me. lol
Oh I have 7, 4brown shavers, an arucan I think yhat is right, and not sure of the other 2, one is dark red and the other pure white. They were given to me.

 

[Kikiriki]

BYC is awesome! It helped me so much, too

I don't know what your climate is, but it could be a fun project for you and your children to start a small chicken garden. My girls love the leaves of sweet potato and collards, both of which are very very easy to grow, and they keep growing even as you harvest leaves. Every evening I go out and pull leaves, chop them up and feed them to the girls before bedtime. (I have a plastic cutting board and a knife right out by the run.)

You could try some grains, too, like oats or wheat. I had hard time because of squirrels, but you might try some corn and sunflowers.

Good luck with the flock!

 

[AmyNZ]

Hey thanks Kikiriki, our climate down here is very changeable. It can go from hot to freezing to windy to saturating in the blink of an eye. I have noticed that my chickens are not interested in the celery or potatoes that are growing in their area. I feed them a mix also that is made up locally by a couple I know that work at the university here. It is full of crushed grains and all sorts of goodies. But kumura (sweet potato) is definitely one I haven't tried. I am sure at least some of them must be close to finishing their mault. oh, and my girls are usually in bed by 7 as we are losing our light heading into winter. I am aftaid I may not get eggs until after winter due to the lack of sunlight hours :-(