Chooks – chickens, hens, poultry. “Chooks” rhymes with “books”.
OK, so now that all the non-Australians and non-Kiwis are up to speed, let me tell you why I am talking about chooks!
Not many of you know this, but I am a mad-keen gardener. I am lucky enough to live on a 2-acre block (that’s 8004 square metres if you prefer), in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne Australia.
And my favourite creatures in the whole world, outside of my family, are chooks. I have had chook on-and-off over the years, but for the last few years I haven’t had any. And I have missed them.
Let me show you the PARADISE I have set up, ready to get some chooks…
This is their outer run. It is about 80 metres long. It goes down one edge of my block, about half the length of the block. It is well over-grown with weeds, as you can see, and has a nice cosy shed at one end, where they will sleep. Here’s the inside of the shed:
It is hard to take a photo of the inside of a shed, but basically as you walk in the door (that’s the human-size door, not the chooks’ door that leads to the run), you find that the shed is divided into two sections, with a netting wall between. This first section is where the feed is stored, and there are cages where I used to have rabbits.
Then you go into the chooks’ half of the shed…
In this part there is a perch, and a cage up above the ground where you can have a hen with chicks if you like (which I have also done in the past), and there are six laying boxes.
There is a pop-hole door that I can close to keep Mr Fox out at night time. That leads to a small enclosed run outside the shed, and there is another pop-hole from that run to the big one.
So now all I need is some chooks! In an hour or so I will pick up my daughter from work, and we will go and get some from the feed place down the road. I’ll take some more pictures for you then…
I’m so excited to be getting chooks again! lol
