Spring Chickens

Whenever spring arrives in your territory, it’ll be a fantastic time to let your chooks roam around in the garden. For those of us who are green-fingered, chickens are fantastic garden helpers. Not only do their droppings make for wonderful fertiliser, but chooks eat lots of crop-eating insects. In the wild, they're finely honed insect-eating machines, and if left to their own devices, scouring your garden for tasty bugs will be their favourite hobby. It’s natural behaviour, it’s what they would spend a lot of their time doing if given the chance, and they’re excellent at it. As long as your garden is nice and secure, and there’s no risk of predation (from wild animals or other pets such as dogs), then your chooks will be a great boon for your garden. Just be sure to protect any young seedlings, as chooks can decimate smaller plants.

Springtime is a wonderful time of year for your chooks

At this point in the year, as the days grow longer once more, your chickens will start to lay more eggs. You'll need to get up a little earlier to collect them. As dawn breaks earlier, you’ll need to let your chickens out of their coop earlier each day, and close the door to the coop later each night when they’ve gone in to roost.

At this time, it’s also important to keep an eye out for parasites, particularly if spring is relatively warm where you are. Mites and lice are a big problem for your chooks, so it’s wise to check them regularly.