As the days get longer a change is triggered in chooks across the nation.
In what is an awesome trick of nature, a gland in the chook's brain picks up that winter is coming to an end, and signals to their body to start, restart or ramp up egg production.
This phenomenon, known as Spring Flush, makes now the perfect time to set up your chooks to spring into another laying season, poultry enthusiast and animal nutritionist with Barastoc Poultry, Elise Davine said.
"It's great to see the number of people who have chooks on the rise again," she said.
"Whether people get them primarily for eggs, as pets, to help teach kids, or to help breakdown food scraps and fertilise the garden, the basics of supporting your chooks' health and performance remains the same.
"We've developed a list of top 10 tips that outline just how to coach your girls to gold-medal performance in terms of health, wellbeing and egg-laying.
"It's all about team selection, having room to move, disease and injury prevention, and nutrition."
Ms Davine encouraged people, whether they have a few chooks in a suburban backyard or a few dozen on the farm, to run through these tips.
The 10 tips are:
- Know the rules and regulations on keeping poultry as they vary across Australia. They cover such things as how many birds you're allowed to keep and whether roosters are allowed in the mix;
- Pick your team for their natural abilities which suit your purpose;
- Considering whether you have enough room in your coop is key when deciding how many birds you will keep. The more time they will be spending inside the hen house, the more room they will potentially need. You will need at least 0.4 square metres of floor space per bird;
- The enclosure you install must be strong enough to keep your chooks safe, particularly at night;
- Ensure the coop is fit for purpose as chooks like to lay in a place that's comfortable;
- In the warmer months position the water in the shade and keep it off the ground;
- Familiarise yourself with common poultry diseases;
- Watch for unwelcome behaviour such as broodiness, egg-eating, and plucking at feathers or pecking other birds, and be prepared to step in. Don't be afraid to isolate a bird for a few days;
- When new arrivals first appear, the established hierarchy of the flock is disrupted. Introduce birds in at least a pair so that a single bird isn't bullied; and
- Just as you enjoy a varied diet, so too do your feathered friends. Guarantee their health by providing a complete, balanced commercial feed enriched with calcium for eggshell and bone strength.
"To test the average chook owner's coaching ability, we're also launching the Commonhealth Games," Ms Davine said.
- Visit: www.barastocpoultry.com.au
