Productive pets

Shape up goldfish. Now your pet-peers are recycling scraps and producing food, the pressure is on.

Backyard chooks

Owner of City Chicks, a company that sells and rents chooks in Brisbane and Sydney, Ingrid Dimock says the backyard chook-boom continues, driven by the whole plate-to-paddock mentality. “People want to take control of where their food comes from,” she says.

Eggs-aside, the chook is known as an interactive pet for kids and a reason for kids to go out into the back yard.

“Most kids connect well with chooks because, unlike other pets such as guinea pigs, the chicks actually seek the kids out,” Ingrid says.

“Chooks really, really do have personalities and the more time you spend with birds the more you see,” Ingrid says. “My kids (three, five and seven) adore the chooks.”

Choosing a chook Plenty of chook-types suit the backyard, but if a family want the “perfect egg-laying machine” plus a really good pet, Ingrid recommends the Isabrown.

Bantams are a great option too, if kids are nervous about animals and eggs are not the priority. “Timid children connect with smaller chickens because they can play with them, and dress them up,” Ingrid says.

Clucky cure Hand-raising chickens is a beautiful option for kids, especially coming into spring, Ingrid advises. And when they are hand-raised, the chickens end up as very relaxed pets.

“There is nothing quite like getting a chick at a day old – they are just a little puff ball,” she says. Chicks spend four to six weeks in a heated brooder box, so there is work involved. But it really suits if the kids are into animals and are over the age of four. Under-fours are just too little to realise how easily puff-balls can be squashed, Ingrid explains.

Feathered-friendly space To set chooks to work cleaning up weeds and scraps, rather than reeking garden-destruction, it’s best to fence off areas and cover garden beds. But freedom means higher egg quality. “If chooks are locked up, people will end up with only a grain-fed egg,” Ingrid explains. Chooks need to be out on fresh ground. “It’s really important – you control the egg quality,” she says.

Coast mum Jenny, who lives on acreage, says her chook yard is built like a fortress to stop wandering dogs breakfasting on her chooks. Her family buried the chicken-wire down 30cm into the soil to stop dogs and foxes digging into their yard. “It wasn’t cheap, but we haven’t lost any chooks or bought eggs for a year now, and I’ll swear the eggs taste better,” she says.

And aside from the eggs, the chooks are really amusing, Jenny says. “The kids ‘perch’ up in the tree branches and watch ‘our girls’ pecking and preening, calling them the pet names they’ve given them all.”

But there’s no need to build a permanent chook-yard if you just want a couple of chickens. Mobile tractor coops let chooks work-over which ever part of the garden you want to wheel them to, although the chooks will still like being let out in the afternoons for a play with the kids. The tractor also ensures chook poo is put to use on the lawn rather than accumulating and attracting vermin.

Henny penny So, fresh eggs, companionship, and fertiliser (like any pet-poo there is the cleaning aspect, but at least the poo is usable on the garden!) aside, what’s the cost of keeping the farm in your backyard?

Initial set-up can be costly. But if you can hand-make your own coop and are happy to drive a few hours to get some good chooks it cuts back the cost, Ingrid says. “Or you can have it all done for you for around $500 - $1600 for a good set-up.” If there are four in the family you might buy 4 laying hens. “But if you want something pretty too, you can add a hybrid,” Ingrid says.

It costs around 40 cents a day to feed a couple of chooks, so weighed up with the price of eating the freshest organic egg possible, that sounds like good value for farming in the yard.

And like worms, “Chooks are extremely good converters of scraps,” Ingrid explains. An average family might produce a dinner-size-bowl of scraps; these would be polished off by four chickens each day.

Tips for buying chooks Buying from a reputable breeder usually means the flock have been well cared for. Reputable breeders vaccinate chickens and offer warranties, so if there’s a pre-existing problem with your bird, like an infection, they can be returned.

“If they don’t offer a warranty, it’s a fair indication that they are backyard breeders, not a reputable breeder,” Ingrid says.

And what about that discovery the sweet chick is a mini-rooster? Reputable breeders usually de-sex chicks and allow people to return their chickens if they ‘end up’ with a rooster (as some of the exotic breeds are impossible to de-sex), Ingrid explains.

Tips for keeping chooks

Chooks need clean, fresh water daily.

Chickens will produce the best eggs if they are fed a combination of laying mash (grain), egg grit, and your left over food scraps (except egg shells, protein and citrus.) Don’t overfeed as left-overs can attract vermin.

Keep coop clean (so as not to attract rodents and parasites) with a thorough weekly clean and a three-monthly disinfectant treatment. Store grain and egg grit in vermin-proof containers (secure screw lid).

Let your backyard chickens out of their coop for at least three hours each afternoon to scratch and dust bath (they do this to rid themselves of lice and bugs) before they roost at dusk.

Approach chooks slowly and gently pick them up using both hands. No chasing or grabbing chickens by the tail.

Place your coop in a shady spot during the summer days.

Chooks need three-monthly worm, lice and flea treatments. Check with suppliers that chickens have been vaccinated against disease.

Provide a safe (cool, dark) place for the chickens to retreat to. Keep them safe from predators by offering a place they can seek cover from birds like hawks.

Source: City chicks

Composting with worms

When Paul Harrey was handed a take-away container of compost worms by a friend six years ago, he could not have imagined how they would impact on his future.

The worms quickly established themselves in an old kitchen sink in Dr Harrey and his wife Pene Mitchell’s then-Brisbane home, munching all manner of scraps.

Moved to a bathtub as they multiplied, the worms eventually took up residence in worm beds covering the entire area under Dr Harrey and Dr Mitchell’s Queenslander.

“Feeding the hundreds of worms was a challenge; we were begging for food scraps from neighbours and friends,” Dr Harrey says. (Compost worms process their own body weight in waste a day.)

The industrial designer, engineer and then-manager of a successful industrial design team, Dr Harrey recalls fossicking from the Brisbane fruit and vegetable markets’ bins to keep up with the demand.

“Friends were out doing normal things and there I was trying to find food for worms!” he says.

Five years later, Dr Harrey and Dr Mitchell, an architect who specialises in sustainable projects, run Worms Downunder, one of Queensland’s largest compost worm farms based in Montville. They manufacture worm farm and composting systems (including the ‘wheelie bin worm habitat’ Dr Harrey invented in 2007) and supply compost worms and vermiculture products nationally.

They’ve noticed a big worm-composting move over the last few years, driven by people’s increasing desire to grow their own chemical-free nutritious food, as well as the realisation they can reduce their environmental impact by processing their own organic waste at home. “And create valuable castings and liquid to enhance their gardens”, Dr Mitchell says.

Over 60% of waste arriving at landfill sites is organic, with each of our households throwing out 270kg of organic matter every year. Removal of this organic waste to landfill produces a huge problem, with the release of CO2s with trucking, acid leachate from rotting matter and release of methane, Dr Mitchell explains.

“Processing waste on-site negates all these problems – no transportation impacts, and castings store carbon and water. It closes the loop!” she says.

People are even realising that their pets cause serious environmental impact. Australia’s dogs create over 400 tonnes of poo a day which is a lot of bagged, binned then landfill waste, Dr Mitchell explains. “Worms can process this waste in a safe and odourless way and turn it into compost for ornamental plants and gardens.”

A 240 litre capacity worm habitat is perfect for a household with a family of four plus, and also offices and schools, Dr Mitchell says. The worms will process most of a family’s kitchen and mulched garden waste, and sometimes more...

Useful tips for worm farming

Diverse diet! Right, time to test them out. Everyone had been telling me they ate everything, and true to form they had been composting our scraps with gusto, bar the citrus. The long white sports sock had blown off the clothes line, flown away into mud and was now a ‘long black’. What better way to escape the soaking-washing-soaking-washing-drying chore than just pop it into our ‘other bin’. After all, the worms were settled in, they were ready for a challenge! Three weeks later, my then-two-year-old and I had a ‘treasure hunt’ to find the sock. And here’s what we found. The sock’s ‘other half’ (yes, the one on the left of the photo) behaved itself and stayed on the washing line - let that be a lesson to all socks!

Getting started: The worm bed needs to be moist before worms are added. And keep worms out of direct sunlight.

Settling in: Worms need a day or so to settle in before being fed. A few worms may go ‘walk-about’ around and out of their habitat in the first few days, but this should settle down. If it persists or many worms are out of the bed, there may have a bedding-problem, so contact your supplier for some advice.

Positioning your worm bed: Worm Farms can be located indoors or outdoors, but they don’t like it too hot (like in direct sunlight) or too cold. Underneath the house is a great spot.

Feeding: Don’t overfeed as bedding will become acidic and the worms will suffer. If you notice food is remaining in the bed for over a week, stop feeding until it starts to disappear. They’ll eat more quickly if scraps are size reduced by chopping or mulching. Dr Harrey uses a garden mulcher to size-reduce his worm-farm food and finds the worms gobble it very quickly. Worms will do best on a balanced diet, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, wet cardboard and newspaper. Worms don’t like onions, citrus, garlic, meat or bread – they’ll sit uneaten and get smelly.

Watering: You’ll need to water the bedding to keep it moist. It may not need as much water in winter or when you are placing moisture-laden food like fruit into the compost. To encourage the worms to move up to the surface, cover the bedding with a damp sack or old carpet.

General maintenance: Aerate the bedding at least once a week with a hand trowel, but don’t bury surface food deep down. Compost worms won’t survive in a garden but may be added to compost heaps if they are well watered, and turned.

Source: Worms Downunder

For more information:

Your local council website gives tips about composting and worm farming and provides free worm farming DVDs at local libraries. Visit: www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au and also check for their poultry-keeping by-laws, which dictates the number of birds that can be kept and usually prohibits the keeping of roosters in residential areas.

The Department of Primary Industries website offers practical advice about setting up a hen shed, including plans. Visit: www.dpi.qld.gov.au

City Chicks website provides handy feeding and caring advice for keeping backyard chooks. Visit: www.citychicks.com.au

Worms Downunder website provides practical tips for setting up your worm habitat. Visit: www.wormsdownunder.com.au