Green-Change.com

Tag: chickens

  • The Big Pig Project 2010

    In our quest to eat more sustainably, we’ve been experiencing what it’s like to raise our own animals for meat. So far it’s only been chickens, but we just raised the bar another notch with the addition of three pigs to the back yard! Aren’t they adorable? These little guys are super-cute, and you could…

  • Processing Chickens

    That’s the euphemism for those that don’t like to say “slaughtering and butchering chickens”! I processed the last two roosters from our first batch of chicks today. We’re keeping the one female from the group to join our layer flock. This photo is from the start of June – I just realised I hadn’t taken…

  • Organic Fruit Fly Control and Hatching Chicks

    We had a fantastic presentation today at the Jamberoo Community Growers meeting, by the people from Organic Crop Protectants. A big part of the talk was on organic fruit fly control, using their “eco-naturalure” male fruit fly trap and attractant/insecticide products. It looks like a great system to keep these frustrating pests down. You simply…

  • Chicken Tractor Lifting Handles

    The chicken tractor I built with my father a couple of years ago is still going strong. Since moving to Jamberoo we’ve been using it to build garden beds – we place it where we want the bed, leave it there for a few weeks until the grass has been cleared, then move it along…

  • Playing With Their Food

    I was telling some friends at work about our new chicks, and when I mentioned that we were growing them out for meat they asked if our girls – aged 4, 6 and 8 – knew. To be honest, we’ve been upfront with them since before the chicks hatched. We’ve been clear all along that…

  • Hatching Chicks

    This story has been a bit of a saga. Remember back when I got Molly the leghorn to go broody and slipped some eggs under her? Well, none hatched. I think it was a combination of inexperienced first-time mother and low fertility rate of eggs. She was sitting on 6 eggs: three exploded in the…

  • How To Encourage A Hen To Go Broody

    I previously posted asking if anyone had any suggestions on [how to make a hen go broody](http://green-change.com/2010/01/14/how-do-you-make-a-chicken-go-broody/). I got some helpful answers, and did some research, and found a few suggestions: – leave eggs in the nest – put golf balls in the nest, so she thinks they’re eggs – set up a nice quiet…

  • How Do You Make A Chicken Go Broody?

    So, after trying to [stop a chicken from going broody](http://green-change.com/2009/01/07/broody-chicken/) several times throughout last year, now I want her to go broody and she won’t! Late last year we got some new chickens – 4 brahma pullets and a rooster to match. We also acquired 3 unwanted ISA brown layers from a friend. So with…

  • Jamberoo Community Growers – Small Gardens and Chooks

    Earlier this year, Megan and I worked with some other local families to start a gardening club called the Jamberoo Family Growers. Unlike traditional garden clubs, this group will have a focus on helping people to grow fruit and vegetables at home, using healthy natural methods and tapping into local knowledge and experience. It will…

  • Video: The Permaculture Concept – Bill Mollison

    This is a post I wrote a while ago on my personal blog, but I think it’s really appropriate here. Plus I still don’t have much time to post anything new yet. Don’t you hate it when you know you’ve seen something in a video (say, Bill Mollison talking about planting in guilds), but you…