HI backyard chook lovers!
We’re a couple of new chook parents from Melbourne, Australia, where it is currently cold, rainy and a bit miserable. We’ve never had chickens before and are learning/loving them a lot as we go.
Over lockdown we raised five beautiful ladies, two black Australorp x New Hamshire and three white leghorn x New Hamshire, roughly 8 months old now. We love them but they’re causing a bit of havoc lately and we’d love some pointers as to why and how we can help them to be the best gals.
We recently changed our feeding regime as our yard was frequented by dozens of neighbourhood regular birds in the mornings, who would devour the girls feed when they were elsewhere. We’ve moved from an open dish feeder into a stand-up PVC tube style (from Aussie company Dine a Chook if anyone is interested, https://www.dineachook.com.au/the-big-red-chicken-feeder/). It’s essentially eliminated the sparrow/pigeon problem, but while we know the girls are getting their feed and they know where there is food, we feel they’re not getting enough sustenance. We don’t really have all that much scraps to give them due to our diet and cooking habits. It may be unrelated, but we feel like they’re attacking plants and the grass way harder now to find food, does this sound right?
What is the best practice here?
Related to this is that they’re totally trashing our garden and have all but destroyed the grass. This happened really rapidly, as if they just decided one to tear up the grass and pick all the leaves off anything they could access after months of healthy coexistence. We’re building wire frames to keep them off the grass where we can, but parts of the yard have turned into mud bowls and we’ve got the advice that it won’t be effective reseeding until spring (September in Australia).
Any advice to let them be happy and roam while protecting our grass and plants?
Thanks so much! We love our girls but want them to be happy in a manageable and clear back yard
We’re a couple of new chook parents from Melbourne, Australia, where it is currently cold, rainy and a bit miserable. We’ve never had chickens before and are learning/loving them a lot as we go.
Over lockdown we raised five beautiful ladies, two black Australorp x New Hamshire and three white leghorn x New Hamshire, roughly 8 months old now. We love them but they’re causing a bit of havoc lately and we’d love some pointers as to why and how we can help them to be the best gals.
We recently changed our feeding regime as our yard was frequented by dozens of neighbourhood regular birds in the mornings, who would devour the girls feed when they were elsewhere. We’ve moved from an open dish feeder into a stand-up PVC tube style (from Aussie company Dine a Chook if anyone is interested, https://www.dineachook.com.au/the-big-red-chicken-feeder/). It’s essentially eliminated the sparrow/pigeon problem, but while we know the girls are getting their feed and they know where there is food, we feel they’re not getting enough sustenance. We don’t really have all that much scraps to give them due to our diet and cooking habits. It may be unrelated, but we feel like they’re attacking plants and the grass way harder now to find food, does this sound right?
What is the best practice here?
Related to this is that they’re totally trashing our garden and have all but destroyed the grass. This happened really rapidly, as if they just decided one to tear up the grass and pick all the leaves off anything they could access after months of healthy coexistence. We’re building wire frames to keep them off the grass where we can, but parts of the yard have turned into mud bowls and we’ve got the advice that it won’t be effective reseeding until spring (September in Australia).
Any advice to let them be happy and roam while protecting our grass and plants?
Thanks so much! We love our girls but want them to be happy in a manageable and clear back yard
