1. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Backyard Chooks
Keeping your own flock
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

2. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Eggs (probably the first thing you think about when the word “chooks comes up!)
Cultivation of veggie patch (authorised or unauthorised)
Manure
Entertainment
Companionship
Meat, if you have a mind to....
Why Chooks?
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

3. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Fertile eggs
Sexed day old chicks
Point-of-lay pullets
Spent layers
Commercial chicken producers
Operating egg farms
Friends
Obtaining Your Chooks
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

4. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Crossbred
Rhode Island Red
Australorp
White Leghorn
Light sussex
Plymouth Rock
Breeds
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

5. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Accommodation
500mm of perch
0.5m2 of floor area at least
Dry & protected
Other chooks (social animals)
Feed and water
Dust bath
Needs
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

6. Accommodation – Pen and Run
Farmyard classic
Secure building with roosts and laying area
Open yard for sun, dust bathing and exercise
Can alternate yards and vegetable garden
Accommodation – Pen and Run
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

7. Accommodation – Deep Litter
Start out with 10 – 15cm layer of wood shavings, saw dust, straw, hay etc.
Add more as required
Throw scratch mix on to get chooks to turn it over
Clean out once per year
Chooks remain inside but can be free ranged
Accommodation – Deep Litter
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

8. Accommodation – Chook Tractor
Chooks remain inside at all times
The tractor moves from bed to bed
Avoids build up of pests and diseases
Cultivate the ground and harvest snails, slugs, mulch, plants
Accommodation – Chook Tractor
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

9. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Feed
Commercial – mash, pellets or crumbles, store it dry, cool and vermin free.
Coarse Grains & Grain substitutes - roots
Green forage
Scraps
Insects
Shell grit or limestone
Hard grit
Water
Necessary for laying
Cool, fresh and lots of it
Feed & Water
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

10. Health and other problems
Generally fairly healthy
Mites and lice
Egg bound
Cropbound
Coccidosis & Mareks disease
Garlic and sulphur
Other bits
Moulting
Health and other problems
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

11. Practical – Making a feeder
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

12. For more details check our website
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
For more details check our website