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Getting stared with chickens - summing up

In 2013 I interviewed chicken flocksters on different sized properties, from suburban blocks to small farms, in four different countries, about getting started with chickens. This was a continuation from my first series of interviews about “getting started with growing your own”. One thing was the same in every interview, everyone loves watching their chickens! I really enjoyed reading these interviews, so I hope you did too. It is interesting to read about how people keep their chickens (and other poultry) and why they make those decisions, with lots of great advice for new chicken keepers too.

Here are all the interviews:

Ohiofarm Girl of Adventure in the Goodland (USA)

Gavin from the Greening of Gavin (Aust)

Madeleine from NZ Eco Chick (NZ)

Tanya of Lovely Greens (UK)

Adam and Amy from Sustainaburbia (Aust)

Linda from Greenhaven (Aust)

And my interview with myself (Aust)





I'm looking forward to more chicken discussions...


By the way, my chicken eBook is now available if you want to know more about backyard chickens and using chicken tractors.  More information over at the chicken tractor ebook blog.  Or you can get it directly from my shop on Etsy (.pdf format), or Amazon Kindle or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.




What's the eBook about?
Chickens in a confined coop can end up living in an unpleasant dust-bowl, but allowing chickens to free-range can result in chickens getting into gardens and expose them to predators.

 A movable cage or “chicken tractor” is the best of both options – the chickens are safe, have access to clean grass, fresh air and bugs. Feed costs are reduced, chickens are happier, and egg production increases. 

 But how do you build a chicken tractor? What aspects should be considered in designing and using a chicken tractor effectively? In this eBook I aim to explain how to make a chicken tractor work for you in your environment to meet your goals for keeping chickens. 

I also list what I have learnt over 10 years of keeping chickens in tractors of various designs and sizes, from hatching chicks, through to butchering roosters.


Reviews of the Design and Use a Chicken Tractor


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Comments

  1. Debra KJuly 24, 2013 at 10:03 AM

    Hi Liz, thanks for this series and for offering a give away of this book. My advice, after everything that has happened here on the farm the last few weeks, make sure a fox/dogs etc 100% can not get in to their pens, I thought I had mine pretty well covered, but something still found it's way in while the big dogs were away from the property...and read everything you can about them and build a practical pen, squeezing in to a small pen to catch a chicken or clean out their pen is no fun...

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  2. Madeleine @ NZ EcochickJuly 24, 2013 at 6:05 PM

    Loved this series!!! It was so funny and I learnt heaps. I love my chooks. At the moment they are super busy at the moment working over my garden. I love my mini tractors!!! I'm in NZ (as you know) but my brother lives in Oz and he's coming here next month. Can I please still enter? Would so LOVE this book!!!! Look forward to the next series! Mx

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  3. Tanya MurrayJuly 24, 2013 at 8:16 PM

    I think the series has been a very sensible and informative thing to do with the rising popularity of keeping backyard chooks. My one BIG bug bare is....be prepared to kill your chooks. Invariably there will be illness like a cloaca prolapse or an attack by other animal and the kindest thing is euthanasia. Same goes for roosters....don't dump them....it's kinder to kill them (and makes sense). Tomorrow night at our Living Better meet-up we are really talking poultry in a big way and we have a speaker to talk to us about coccidiosis. Looking forward to it.

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  4. Barb.July 24, 2013 at 9:07 PM

    Yes, I too liked it. My advice would be to start small. And keep them away from your food gardens, 'cause they will ruin a seasons food within hours...That does look like an informative read, thanks for the chance to win it.

    Barb.

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  5. GlennJuly 24, 2013 at 10:30 PM

    Cheers Liz, we are waiting until we move on to our farm to get into chookopia.

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  6. Crunchie's MumJuly 25, 2013 at 9:55 AM

    I too liked your series. My advice would be to make sure you have suitable secure housing for your chickens BEFORE you purchase them. Its a real pain when livestock comes home and you haven't planned properly for them.
    Lynda

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  7. UnknownJuly 26, 2013 at 7:02 AM

    Hi Liz, I enjoyed reading the interviews, maybe a series on keeping a house cow next??
    My advice to anyone thinking of keeping chickens is; prepare to become involved in the drama of their lives (better than Home and Away). For example; When your alpha hen goes clucky and decides to sit for a month on avocado seeds, the fights and strange behaviors exhibited by the beta hens trying to become alpha hen will amuse and bemuse you.
    Jude from Australia. (Chronicles of a humpy dweller)

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  8. Oak Hill HomesteadJuly 31, 2013 at 5:16 AM

    This was a great series. Thank you for posting at the HomeAcre Hop; I hope you'll join us again this Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
  9. RenataJuly 31, 2013 at 8:40 PM

    My advice is to go for it!!! Chickens are wonderful, easy pets that give back!!
    To have eggs all year around make sure you have a hen that matures (turns 6 months old & begins to lay) in May or June. The first year they come to maturity they must lay & so you will get your winter eggs whilst the old girls get lazy about giving them :)
    Blessings
    Renata:)

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

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