Best ever chook feeder

I was looking for a chook feeder that wasn’t fiddly and time consuming to refill so Dine-A-Chook seemed like a good option for me.

To refill the Dine-A-Chook I don’t even have to bend over; the parts don’t warp and wear in such a way that it’s a battle to get it back together; and it sits in the sun without becoming brittle.

What I didn’t realise was that I was also getting a feeder that would simultaneously solve a heap of other problems I had come to accept as being part and parcel of feeding chooks – like the wild birds which come to eat then leave behind mites;  the vermin which carry disease; and the waste that comes from food going mouldy.

The first reaction people have when they see my Dine-A-Chook is “I reckon I can make one”—but I always explain that there’s much more to it than meets the eye.

You wouldn’t bother going through all the time, effort, cost and heartache of trial and error to get it right when you can just fast forward to the perfect set-up.

So refilling the feeder is now easy plus I don’t need to do it nearly as often as I used to because I’m going through so much less grain. My only regret is that Dine-A-Chook didn’t come along sooner!

I would hate to think back over the last decade and add up the money I’ve wasted in chook feed lost to mice, birds and mould. It has paid for itself many times over.

Dine-A-Chook is a healthy, easy way to feed gain and pellets that keeps both me and my chooks happy.

If you have chooks, you should get one!

If you have lots of chooks, you should get a few.

Dine-A-Chook

Housing problems, err, solutions.

We have moved into a gorgeous old house on a farm.

The plan is that by expanding how many girls we can house and care for broody at once, we can meet your demands for more Designer Backyarders more quickly.

But while where the humans live is great, we have to pretty much start from scratch for the chooks.

To keep these little girls happy and healthy I'm on the hunt for a solution with the following features:

• Quick and easy to install (winter is upon us!)
• Simple to clean out
• Able to accomodate a mother from laying right through to raising
• Good ventilation
• Attractive
• Non-permanent

And...

Have simple, child-proof access for egg collecting.

I'll keep you posted on my progress towards finding the best solution in Australia on the market today.

Any product reviews you wish to share will be received with tremendous thanks.

Also on my list of things to tackle before the next season takes-off is fencing solutions; feed for layers; and recipes for using up all those wonderful eggs. Over the coming weeks I'll cover the best, the worst & everything in between.

Cock-a-doodle don't!

These are the chicks. They're kind of grumpy at having been confined to a small make-shift run for most of the weekend while we were in Melbourne doing the last deliveries of the season.

As we have recently moved, fox-proof accommodation is still in the planning phase. I'm sure you will agree these lodgings are less than satisfactory.

I have to say I was very impressed with some of the gardens our girls moved into this weekend.                                          I hope all the families are happy and that the chooks are settling in well. We'd all love to see some photos!

Part of next season's preparations have included lots of gardening...



Wormwood



Lavender



Way too much comfrey

This will completely take over but is a good crop for use in the compost and it can be dried to become a winter feed.






And for some fallen fruit to keep them occupied, we've planted a little fig tree.


Fig tree

Then there is next season's layers.  A few of the stars I have picked out for next season include these little lovelies.

And next season's rooster is busy trying to learn to crow. He thinks he's the King of the Castle standing there on the Dine-A-Chook so his adoring girls can all get a good look at him.

Here's his performance trying to compete with Simon yesterday. This went on for about an hour! Fortunately, we don't have neighbours nearby.

No tail feathers left to shake.

This is a 60 day old chick.

Salt and Pepper is such a great mother they are all still together all the time.



You will notice that Salt and Pepper has lost her tail.  She is in moult and if you think she look ordinary what about Simon.


He has gone from this...

To this...

But with plenty of goodies in his diet over the coming weeks he will quickly return to his usual stunning self.

It's great when the girls stagger their moult so we get fresh eggs right through the year.

Don't ask me why those images are the wrong way around, Blogger won't play fair again today.

To those of you who have requested a wating list form, they will be on their way to you by this weekend. It's kind of a sad time here with lots of deliveries of mini-flocks going to new homes over the past few weeks. However, this Sunday we're expecting 10 super cute bubba chicks -- no, not a special delivery from the Easter Bunny -- a new hatch by one of out best mother hens, all going well photos to come soon!

Chicks meet pigs

Here are the chicks at Earth Fest 2012.

Due to the weather we were inside... sharing a room with a farmer who breeds Wessex Saddle Back Pig!

It was nice to share the space with someone who shares my philosophy of allowing animals to live naturally, raise their young naturally & is not driven by economics when it is not in the best interests of animals.

His pigs free range, no nose rings but they do have teeth, tusks & tails! Can you believe piglets usually have their teeth pulled out so they don’t damage their mother’s teats – if that was a real danger pigs would have died out within a year of coming out of the arc.

The mother pigs are not kept in stalls or other cruel contraptions either.

It was nice to meet thousands of people – many of them already have hens at home but now they will view them in a whole different way and reconsider some of their living conditions.

I know there was a rush on comfrey & tansy at local nurseries later in the day & from all the interest in the Dine-A-Chook feeder I imagine they will be busy with orders too.

People noticed how calm and friendly the chooks were despite the hectic crowds and noise. I think they enjoyed the constant company and attention.

All the children coming through loved them!

We have quite a few deliveries over the next few weeks... handing over our lovely girls just before they begin to lay (always a sad and a happy day).

Little blue red joins the flock

Here is one of the chicks waiting his turn at the Dine-A-Chook.

We have had some really wild weather but the grain and pellets have remained utterly dry.

Salt & Pepper and her 3 chicks are off to Earth Fest this weekend.

Last weekend we went to a poultry auction to sell some of our young roosters.  We came home with this gorgeous little girl (see left).

I bought her and her sister because no-one was bidding on them and I desperately didn't want them to go home with the breeder.

It's a bit hard to see in this image but she is a dubbing victim. 

That's when breeders slice the combs off tiny chicks! Yes, they take a chick and literally cut off their comb -- in Australia in 2012.  Difficult to believe this can happen with supposedly civilised people but she and her sister have the scars to prove that it still happens.

They do it so their pretty face isn't obsecured or to prevent the chook from being injured (none of my chooks have EVER had an injury to its comb!) -- they defend this with other equally weak excuses too. 

It is cruel and should be outlawed. 

So anyway... for now she lives with us and loves sitting on my childrens' knees watching TV in the evenings. After a season or two with our lovely mother hens she may learn enough to eventually be allowed to become a mother too.

I don't keep bantams and blue/red isn't in our colour scheme.

Maybe someone at Earth Fest wanting little bantams may decide to give her a home.

Settling in

These are the rapidly growing chicks.

Those early woggles have me thinking 'boy'.

Same with this little guy.

And this one is very rooster-ish now too!

So I've gone from thinking we'd managed the impossible dream of 3 girls to wondering if they are 3 roosters. The one at the bottom has the same shaped comb at their father, the top 2 have the single comb like their mother.



They have settled in to our new home wonderfully and make the old house picture perfect strolling across the lawns.

And they are part of the gardening team. (You'll have to turn sideways for this one -- for some strange reason Blogger insists on twisting it sideways!).

 We are in the process of building new lodgings for the chooks.  Pulling down the old ones means lots of earwigs and slaters to gorge themselves on.  It slows down the job considerably because with every peice of timber that's moved I have to wait for the chooks to clean up the bugs before I can move on to the next peice.

Yesterday they were in danger of being squashed with the roof threatening to fall but there was no moving them on until every wriggling insert had been devourered.

They really are great pest control.

The chicks chased each other for an hour taking turns to peck at a huge huntsman spider.

One sad thing to report: during that massive storm and flood event last week I didn't go out one night to move Alice in when she had gone clucky in a nest she had built outside the run.

The thought of having to climb through 2 wire fences in torrents of rain then carry a pecking chook back and try to settle it elsewhere seemed like a big hassle when the chances of any predators being out in such weather seemed remote but I learnt a hard lesson.  It seems foxes and/or feral cats come out whatever the weather because the next morning all that remained in the nest was a pile of feathers.

Fox proofing is top of our list with the new enclosure design.