Cradling a still-warm egg in the palm of your hand causes the world to slow, giving you a moment to stop and breathe. In that moment the background hum of traffic is absent, the anxiety of the morning rush no longer exists -- and the lovely girl who left the natural treasure coos at your feet, expecting a few kernels of maize.
This is my morning exchange. I am addicted.
By Christmas Day we had 9 lovely chicks.
Keepers of backyard chooks know of this simple pleasure. But you do not even need a "backyard" to have chooks. A few square metres of courtyard is sufficient if you have the right girls.
I know this because I have spent eight years developing the perfect chook for small yards.
I discovered the secret pleasure of keeping chooks quite by accident while I was completing a Master of Sustainability. What started out as a short project studying the calorie intake and egg output of different chicken breeds turned into an obsession. Now my family and I could never live without them in our garden.
Over the next few weeks I will tell you all about the flocks I have created, the attributes that make them so special and why they are suited to small yards.
By the time my Christmas Day hatch are laying (n about 18 weeks time)you'll wonder how your family ever got by without chooks.
Good thread apart from your opinion " Chicks hatched in incubators don't stand a chance.In fact now that I am aware of how social chooks are, I regard incubators as abuse." I realise everyone is entitled to their opinion however I certainly believe that to be poorly informed opinion.
ReplyDeleteWe have bred lots of chickens in incubators where they go to a breeding box then to the main pens where they are finally introduced to the mature hens and a rooster. The young chickens are let out each day from the sole pen into our beautiful gardens to scratch around and mix with the other hens. They all get along well and they work out their pecking order quickly. They form close relationships with the other muture chickens.
They all roost together and are much friendly than the hen raised chickens we have raised.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Rupert.
ReplyDeleteMy aim is to enhance sustainable behaviours.
"Friendly" isn't high on my list but it does come as part of the package.
I'm sure your chooks have given you many hours of pleasure.