Why have Chickens? Not only are chickens great pets, but there are many benefits to keeping chooks in your backyard:

Access to the freshest, tastiest, and most nutritious eggs around Chickens can help reduce pests like grubs and ticks Recycle your food scraps Support ethical food production by having happy, healthy chooks Chook poo offers a nearly unlimited supply of nutrients for your compost and garden.

It’s important to note local councils have different regulations about keeping chickens in your backyard. These are to ensure the welfare of your chickens, and to ensure they get along with your neighbours.

(The Australia & New Zealand Complete Book of Raising Livestock and Poultry” written by Katie Thear and Alistair Fraser)

What does my chicken need? (“Introduction to Permaculture”

Written by Bill Morrison with Reny Mia Slay, 1994

Chickens were originally jungle animals. To keep your chickens healthy and happy, create conditions that mimic the chicken’s natural environment and that encourages/uses its intrinsic behaviours to create food and fertility in the backyard. Poor health can result in loss of egg production right up to death of an entire flock. Your role is to:

Provide dry, predator-proof living conditions – damp, dirty bedding encourages pests and diseases. Chickens love dust bathing, it’s an important part of their skin and feather care.

Clean out the chook house and straw yard quarterly – have a compost area nearby. Fresh water daily is essential. On hot days provide lots of shade. Ensure chickens get plenty of green pick daily, either free-range on the lawn or brought to their

yard and hung up so the chickens can bite off pieces, and won’t trample and spoil it. Leafy green weeds are great, like Trad (wandering dew or Tradescantia fluminensis) or turkey rhubarb (not actual rhubarb leaves, they’re poisonous!).

Remove uneaten food stuffs to avoid chickens eating rotting food, and avoid attracting rodents. How many chickens can I keep in my backyard? Under State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, there is a limit of no more than 10 chickens as long as they are maintained in accordance with the guidelines of that policy. The keeping of roosters is not prohibited on residential land in Wollongong however we do not recommend or encourage the keeping of roosters due to potential for them creating a noise nuisance. Fowl houses and fowl yard requirements:

Maximum floor area 15m2 Maximum height of 3m above ground level (existing) Must be structurally adequate Not house more than 10 fowls or poultry Limit of one fowl house per property Requires a distance from the boundary of 3 metres. Must be located at least 4.5m from any dwelling, public hall, school or premises used for the

manufacture, preparation, sale or storage of food Materials used must blend with the environment and be non-reflective Adequate drainage must be provided Floor must be concrete or mineral asphalt underneath roosts or perches.

Note: Consideration should be given to the impact upon adjoining properties Water from the pen must not be allowed to enter a neighbouring property When constructed, fowl houses must be regularly cleaned and maintained

Policy and Legislation State Environment Planning Policy - page 46 - SEPP 2008 pg 46 Local Government (General) Regulation 2005 Scroll down to Part 5 Division 2

Chicken Feed Food scraps alone are not enough. Layer mash or pellets, mixed whole grains or scratch mix are also required. Plus chooks need grit (small, hard particles of pebbles or sand) to help them digest their food.

Nutrient Function Main Sources Proteins Body building and repair Fish meal, blood meal, soya, skim milk Carbohydrates Energy All cereal grains Fats and Oils Energy Fish meal, meat and bone meals,

groundnuts (peanuts) Vitamin A Normal growth, disease resistance Grass meal, yellow maize meal Vitamin B Complex Optimum growth rate and production Fish meal, yeast, skim milk, cereals Vitamin D Healthy growth, preventions of rickets,

strong egg shell Sunlight, fish meal, cod liver oil

Vitamin K Healthy blood Grass meal Calcium and Phosphorous

Healthy bones and strong egg shells Meat, fish meal, bonemeal, limestone flour, crushed dried egg shells

Zinc Healthy skin and feather development Available in supplements Manganese Strong egg shells and good hatching

rate Available in supplements

Iodine Control of metabolism Seaweed extract, available as a supplement

Wild and home grown feeds Nettle Tops (Young) Boiled with potatoes or scraps

Potatoes Boiled and added to mash – do not use green ones Jerusalem Artichokes Cooked or minced raw Grass Mowings Given dried or green Brassicas Given green Turnips Tops fed green, roots cooked or minced raw Carrots Cooked or minced raw Sunflower Seeds Dried and cracked Buckwheat Fed as grain Groundsel Fed green Fat Hen Fed green Acorns Dried and crushed Parsley Fed green Beans (All Types) Dried and ground up Lettuce ‘Gone-to-seed’ plants given whole Linseed Small quantities only as it is a laxative Peanuts Dried and cracked Fruit Small quantities given fresh

Some traditional layer’s recipes are:

1 part bran

1 part wheatmeal

1 part ground oats

1 part maize meal

½ part fish or meat meal. This can be mixed to a crumb consistency with water & fed mid-morning

In addition a scratch grain mixture can be given morning and evening, made up as follows:

2 parts whole oats

2 parts whole wheat

1 part kibbled maize

. Silkie Australorps Rhode Island Red Sussex ISA Brown ISA Brown battery hen

Looking for Chooks? Last updated: January 2015 – new suggestions welcome.

Check advertisements in the classifieds of local newspapers

Contact Dapto Poultry Club for local stock & activities: www.daptopoultryclub.com

Check the online notice board: www.backyardpoultry.com

Local pet food and produce stores (Albion Park Rail, Jamberoo, Kembla Grange, Woonona

etc.) may have chooks for sale or a notice board with posters from local chook breeders

Chickville (Picton) sells various purebreds birds and backyard cross-bred layers. They have

experience with many breeds of fowl. Check the website or give them a call to find out which

heirloom breeds are currently available: www.chickville.net - 0417 040 121

Brian Larkins Poultry (Tahmoor) - New Hampshire Brown x Australorp or White Leghorn or

Rhode Island Red and ISA Browns: 4681 9722

Melrose Farm (Jamberoo) breeds heirloom chicken breeds raised under mothers and sells

only from the pullet stage (12 weeks old minimum), including Barnavelder, Wyandotte’s,

Australorp (standard and bantam), Brown Leghorns, and Pekin Bantams. They also rear

cross-bread layers. Contact Deborah Gough -0419033045

Barter & Sons Hatchery (Luddenhan, western Sydney) beed Silkies, Rhode Island Reds,

Australorps, and their signature cross-breed Barter Browns, Barter Whites, Barter Red and

Barter cross “patchwork”: http://barterandsons.com.au ; 4773 3222

Shoalhaven Poultry Auction: www.shoalhavenpoultry.com.au ; 0410 548 704. A great day to

buy and learn about chooks and ducks. More than 700 birds up for auction from chicks to

layers to brooders, with auctions held three times a year. Penning fees and profits from the

day are donated to A Taste of Paradise (www.atasteofparadise.com.au), a farm mentoring

for youth at risk. Knowledgeable volunteers will be happy to answer all your questions about

the birds up for auction. Chicken feed and all accessories will be available for purchase.

Kevin Blissett (Albion Park) –- buff Pekin bantams and Rhode Island white chickens (large and

bantams), Australian Langshan: 4256 2026

Commercial egg producers sell ISA Browns - sometime pullets (not yet laying chickens

between 8 and 20 weeks), but mostly “old” layers. At 18 months old, a rescue battery hen is

past her peak laying age. Battery hens will have their beaks cut, and may be in poor

condition with missing feathers (see photo above), and may need to be taught to perch on a

roost. Albion Park Poultry, 116 Princes Highway Albion Park Rail; 4256 1656

Binners, Helensburgh; 4294 1147

Barnavelder Wyandotte Brown Leghorn White Leghorn Pekin

Prepared by Wollongong City Council’s Green Team. Phone:(02) 4227 7262 ▪Email: gt@wollongong.nsw.gov.au ▪ Web: www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au