Chicken and Duck House
Chickens and ducks are the best pets! As well as being great company and providing eggs, they reduce our workload by scratching around and aerating the soils, eating up pests, and improving the soil with their manure. Our 'girls' will free range all over the garden in certain fenced sections, and spend time on the veggie beds in a chicken dome. But at nights, and other times, they'll be in there cosy chicken and duck house. Features of their 5 star eco retreat include:
- Spacious living quaters (3 metres by 3 metres, and 2 metres high, to sleep 4 chickens and 2 ducks. Too many girls in too small of a space makes unhappy girls, and bare soil!)
- Cosy sleeping quaters enclosed on three sides, but with ventilation coming through the top, and the eastern side
- A covered outdoor area
- An open outdoor area where we will put prunings, greens and scraps for the girls to eat and turn into compost (the deep litter system)
- Thickly mulched floor
- Fully predator and pest proof, with avairy wire enclosing all sides, and iron sheeting 30cm below the ground
- Made from recyled timber, fencing, guttering, and clading
- Water supplied from their own water tank, which is fed from guttering on their roof
- Evergreen fruit trees to the north and west, and a deciduous fig to the east to provide extra protection from winds, as well as allowing warming winter sun and cooling shade in the summer.
- Ample supply of wormwood nearby to provide insect detterent bedding
The perrenial ground covers in our orchard need to be well established before our chickens and ducks move in, as they will give them a good run for their money scratching about - so we haven't yet got our 'girls' yet, but with a house like this, we have chooks across the country signing up to get in!