Caring for Chooks

I’ve thought about getting chooks many times over the years but it was Marie who finally convinced me we should do it. After trimming the big pine tree up the back we now had a nice clear space to accomodate them. So the first job to do before we even got the chooks was to build them a little house or chicken coop.

 

I decided to start with a single tanalised post in the ground and then built a frame for the floor out of 100x50mm rough sawn timber and bolted it to the post. Then I attached a sheet of plywood. When I tried standing on it, it wasn’t taking my weight as it was pivoting on the bolts, so I attached some legs to help support it.

I built each of the 4 sides on a flat surface from a plan I’d drawn, using 50x50mm battens in the corners to enable screwing the four sides together. I used the same battens to attach a couple of plywood shelves which finally resulted in a multi-level dwelling for them. I attached a few perches fanned out in a circle around the post so that they could easily make their way up and down as well as a simple ladder. I added a few little hinged doors in positions where I hoped the chooks would lay their eggs.

In one side of the coop I put a large door, hinged at the bottom to enable easy access for cleaning. The roof is also hinged at the apex on one side and is a handy way of taking a quick look inside. All that was needed then was some dried out grass clippings for them to make a nest out of and to make it more comfortable and homely.

When we first got the chooks they were still quite small and we were a bit worried about letting them roam freely in the yard until they got a bit bigger in case a cat decided to have one for dinner. So we started them off in an old ginea pig run. Then we made a little connecting tunnel with some plastic mesh to join the two together.

It was an exciting moment when we finally introduced the chooks to their new home. Amazingly, they made their way straight to the top floor to check out the view, which also brought them up to eye level for a face to face meeting.

They were still quite young at this point so it would be a while before any eggs would be laid.

Read more about the chooks here

Treework

Maintaining trees on my property is an ongoing job. If it’s pruning fruit trees or trimming off the odd limb that gets snapped off in a storm, I can usually handle those jobs. But from time to time bigger jobs arise that I simply can’t do on my own, as was the case earlier this year.

Following a rather severe storm a couple of years ago a huge pine tree up the back of my place had a large limb, high up in the tree, snap off. It had been dangling precariously for a couple of years, which was becoming a bit of a safety concern whenever I was walking underneath it in that part of the garden.

I had hoped a future storm would dislodge it fully, half hoping it would come crashing down by itself so I wouldn’t have to pay to get it dealt to, but that didn’t happen.

So I decided to get an arborist friend of mine to come and trim off the broken branch and at the same time remove a few of the lower lateral branches which I hoped would also let more light in the garden.

 

So, after clearing a safe area to work at the base of the tree, he slung a piece of rope up over a high branch then abseiled up the tree with a chainsaw and started cutting. Here was a man impressively skilled in what he does! Within a very short time he was dropping each cut limb perfectly on the ground just where he wanted it.

Before long there was a huge pile of wood gathering below which I (as ground assistant) was clearing away so he could continue working safely. I was amazed at how quickly he got the job done, so while I had him there, I had another job in mind for him to do.

On my property I also have some very tall Ti trees (Kanuka) that have started dying off. When that happens the branches become very brittle and easily snap off in high winds. Neil made it look easy but you can tell by the expression on his face, it was anything but. You need to be very physically strong and agile to do what he’s doing. I was super impressed with his accuracy, as immediately below I had many plants and shrubs that I feared would get damaged with falling branches and debris. But he managed to carefully lower each and every branch onto a clear area of ground only 2 or 3 square metres in size and nothing got damaged.

Inevitably, there was a huge pile of branches to clean up, which required me to expand my firewood storage, so I knocked together a drying rack out of waste timber I had lying around.

This should keep us stocked up for a while.

But better still, all this work has created a nice clear well lit area in the garden where we’re now thinking of putting a few chickens.

That’ll be next.