I have been wanting to keep a few chickens in the garden, the boss won't agree so I went out a bought a couple anyway, they have settled in really well , pic attached
Ron
You need to be a member of Brisbane Local Food to add comments!
I have been wanting to keep a few chickens in the garden, the boss won't agree so I went out a bought a couple anyway, they have settled in really well , pic attached
Ron
You need to be a member of Brisbane Local Food to add comments!
Comments
The big carpet snakes will eat chooks for sure Ron. They are really hard to keep out of the pen as well.
Hoping I don't have those problems with my chickens Dave, having said that plenty of snakes at my place, they love to eat the little ringtail possums in our garden, we have 2 carpet python well over 3 metres long that spend a lot of time in our rock walls
FYI: this article on how to treat snake bite from today's press makes the interesting point that snake bike, although rare, occurs primarily in urban areas.
Yes. I don't know why we haven't had snakes out back from chook keeping. Possibly the presence of dogs. They do sponsor rodents, but you deal through that by management protocols. Previously my neighbours on the same corner also kept poultry -- that's 3 chook pens in the same zone -- and still no snakes, despite maybe 12 birds.
I do use a rat poison trap occasionally just to make sure. As the mouse plague in NSW shows, there is only one way to deal with the numbers and rats can complicate the disease chain.
A bigger problem with poultry, I think, is wild birds. Unless you roof your run and don't free range. Long term in Australia, the threat of disease spread from wild birds to domestic flocks is a major problem. Major Avian flu outbreak in commercial free range industry in Victoria earlier this year.
However, that said -- aside from the eggs chooks are an ecological delight. If you integrate them into waste disposal, fertiliser production and weed management, they are almost a backyard essential.
Sorry Christa, forgot the t
Thanks for the responses Valerie and Chrisa
In over 10 years having chicken, we have never seen a snake. Plenty of rats and mice though. It looks like feeding the chooks in the morning solved that. (No food left out at night). We also have owls around and that would help with rodents.
I know the feeling, I would love a couple of chooks but my other half won't allow it. He says chooks brings rats and rats bring snakes. Sounds like a lot of pets to me.