Lurker turned Member

Hello, My partner and I moved to 3 acres in northern NSW, Australia, 2 years ago, bought 6 chooks to provide us with eggs and have never looked back! We now have 18 girls and at this moment 3 chicks with more hatching overnight hopefully. I have been reading this forum since we got our girls and feel that I now have some experiences to share! We are trying to grow most of our own vege's and fruit, have a few fully grown avocado trees and lots of bananas and the mango's are just ripening. Hopefully will get a few before the fruit bats find them. We started our flock with just the regular laying hens from the local poultry farm (6 Isa Browns, then 6 white ones then 6 black ones - all crossbred laying hens I think) but have raised a few Barnevelders and other crossbred chooks - whatever comes out of the fertilised eggs we get from a lady nearby. We don't have a rooster as I value my sleep and have close neighbours so when one of the chooks goes broody we get a dozen fertilised eggs, pop them under and see what happens! Hope to be able to post some info on our experiences to help others starting out. Kate and Ian