Chicken a la carte

We now have 12 Isa Brown chooks foraging in the nursery area. As well as producing big brown beautiful eggs, Isa Browns are known for their enthusiasm for devouring snails, slugs, spiders, worms and other creepy crawlies. They are also terrific little diggers and will clean up the weeds from under trees more efficiently than I could possibly manage. Within our chook yard, a persimmon, pomegranate, elderberry and some apples are currently benefiting from the ultimate chook experience: natural weeding, pest reduction and lavish deposits of natural fertiliser. I say “currently” because the chook run is a moveable contraption.

Our “Chicken a la carte” system involves a converted trailer/cage that is moved by a tractor to the desired location.
An electric fence is then erected around an area of approximately 50 square metres and the chooks are released into their new territory. They spend the day digging around the trees and fertilising the area and then in the early evening they are released into the nursery area to clean up snails and other pests.

The “Chicken a la carte” comes with all mod cons: perches, suspended water dispenser, feeding tray and nesting boxes with external access. Fresh hay is laid over the wire mesh floor and manure enhanced mulch is removed at regular intervals. The cage is completely fox proof which provides peace of mind when foxes are active in the area. The electric enclosure stops foxes entering as well as discouraging chooks from leaving. We still have one earnest soul who insists on escaping, despite the shocking experience, and is probably laying eggs in some yet-to-be-discovered hidden nest.
Fortunately they are all industrious little diggers with the added bounty of producing large eggs with rich yellow yolks.
After gorging ourselves on poached eggs, scrambled eggs, omelettes, soufflés, custards and meringues we realised that if we consumed all the eggs the “girls” were producing, we’d end up with dangerous cholesterol levels.
We have now come to a very satisfactory arrangement with a roadside stall at a nearby farm where they sell our eggs and we get a discount on their vegies. A perfect "eggs-ample" of community co-operation.