Chickens are one of my favourite additions to my vegetable plot. Not only do they provide beautiful free range, golden yolk eggs, their happy cluck-clucking as I work in the garden keeps me company and makes my heart smile. And that is not where their usefulness stops either. As diggers of soil and hunters of worms they come into their own area of speciality! These days I never go to the effort to dig over a vegetable bed when it is finished, I just set the chickens up in their own little temporary day run on top of the vegetable…

If you have the room, it is worth considering including backyard hens in your productive food garden. Chickens are one of my favourite additions to my vegetable plot. Chickens can do a lot of work for you and provide great resources to help you produce higher food yields in your garden as well as help you to manage your garden without the use of pesticides, artificial fertilisers or neonicontoids. 1. Food production: eggs The most obvious benefit of having backyard hens is that they will produce eggs for you to eat. Eggs laid by your chickens will be fresher than…

Keeping chickens in hot weather can be tricky. It’s spring here in Australia as I write this and we’ve had 4 days in a row over 33ºC (around 90ºF) and while it has mostly cooled off overnight, the days have been unexpectedly warm for early November. While it has mostly cooled off overnight, the days have been unexpectedly warm for early November. Fortunately I have been able to keep a close eye on the girls to make sure they are not getting overly stressed by the heat. It has meant I have mostly stayed close to home, which I don’t…

Keeping bees can be an enjoyable and relaxing hobby - with benefits! Not only will you be able to harvest honey from your own hive - which is so amazing! You will also get great pollination services for free - giving you better blooms, potentially from your food garden and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping one of the world's most important species. Bees pollinate more than 10 different food crops including many fruits and vegetables that might be grown in a productive home garden so keeping a healthy hive can certainly help. Apis mellifera is the common honey…

Keeping your hens healthy is such an important part of your food security strategy. And who doesn't love fresh eggs! There are lots of natural methods you can use to keep ensure you have healthy chickens. One of the ways I use is to plant a garden alongside their yard, within pecking reach, but on the other side of the fence. That way they can self-serve the herbs and plants that support their health, without them being able to scratch or destroy the plants. Here's my top 5 plants or keeping your chooks and their yard healthy: Sage (Salvia officinalis)…