Episode 153 - Why Autumn Is the Smartest Time to Get Chickens

0:00Are you tired of spending too much of your hard-earned money at the supermarket? Are you dreaming of farm-fresh eggs, homegrown veggies and homemade everything? Well, welcome to Ditch the Store, where we break free from supermarket dependence and take back control of our food and household essentials. I'm CJ and I'm here to show you that life is too short for store-bought eggs. So let's get started. Good day, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Ditch the Store. CJ here on our own again. Handy helper is here, but he is out moving chickens. Unfortunately, I can't help him with this at the moment. Still recovering from my fractured femur, which means I'm still on crutches, but I am on the mend. We had X-rays yesterday and I am very pleased to report that we finally have some very clear and obvious bone union happening, which is what we were hanging out for because evidently the femur bone takes a long, long time to heal

1:02for anybody that hasn't experienced it. It can be like six to nine months before it's healed. So we're at the three-month mark and I've had two infections. There's previous episodes me discussing all about what happened to my leg. Farm accident for those that don't know. And so three months we are today that I'm recording it from the accident. And we are lucky enough to have bone union starting to appear, which I'm really, really happy about. That's three months with two infections. I think that's a pretty fair effort. The doctor didn't seem quite as impressed as what I did about it, but I get a different doctor every time I go, because the way that healthcare works here in Australia is when you're an outpatient publicly with the hospital, you turn up to a clinic and you see whichever doctor is on. So literally I've seen four doctors for four lots of X-rays in the last three months. And over that period of time, I have had four different, completely different opinions about my leg.

2:02I take it a bit with a grain of salt and go with my general practitioner. And also the infectious disease doctor who is managing all the bacterial infections that happened as a result of being an open fracture. I trust him more. He's a little bit nerdy, and I like it because he's very, very committed to what he does. And I'm happy with that. Anyway, enough on my leg. Any help is out there, movie jokes, because I would be encroaching as an absolutely useless. So I'm taking this opportunity to record episode 153. And today we are talking about why autumn is the smartest time to get chickens. And hear me out on this one face, because I'm sure there'll be a bunch of people going, what? That's bullshit. No way. Autumn's not the greatest time. We should be doing it in spring. Look, there's a case for that too. But hear me out on why I think autumn is not a bad time to be launching in to getting yourself chickens. And I've got a few really good reasons. But if you're thinking about the getting them, I would say autumn is a great window.

3:08And to me, the, the main reason for that is because as you slide into autumn, there is generally going to be less on your plate. Now, caveat that by saying, if you're in the process of canning kilos and kilos of fruit and veg, if you're spinning wool because you've just shown goat's sheep, whatever, if you're sorting out goat breeding programs, which I'm just about to start managing the AI for this year, if you're flat-stick with all that, then maybe it's not the best time to go ahead and think about getting chickens. But if you're new to home-steading and you don't have any of those other major chores on your plate at the moment, then this is the time where you've got less going on in the garden. Generally, you've got less things that you're starting. It's more that you're winding things up. So, therefore, you sometimes do have a little bit more space and time to add something new into the mix. So, by the end of this, we should be able to tell you if you, if autumn is the right time for you, what you need to prepare,

4:09what you would need to buy and things to avoid. And we'll go through that. So, tip one. Now, my tip one is broken into two parts. Choosing the right age birds for autumn timing. And look, this isn't about being random and just going out and doing it. I would hope that you've downloaded my calendar that I sent out. There's freebie and I'll attach it to the newsletters. So, if you're not on a newsletalist, it's on the newsletalist. Download the calendar. Map out the best times of things for you. And you might be a bit pushed if we're at the beginning of autumn now, but I don't think so. Depending on where you live, unless you're in an area that's going to start snowing in like the next two weeks, then you're probably still good to go. If you're in an area where it's about to start snowing in the next two weeks, maybe defertil spring. But my two options are option one. Buying just before point of lay. And when I say just before point of lay, I mean 14 to 16 weeks. And the reason I say that is because they still got at least

5:13what's at six to four weeks before they would be considered point of lay. Now, that's a good time to get them into a coop, get them settled, get them used to you, get them into a routine. Going through winter, they are not going to necessarily start laying in the dead of winter. But that gives you a little bit more time to get them into a really good routine so that coming out the other side of winter, and they may start laying literally for us. Winter solace is end of June, 22nd of June, I think. And the days actually start getting longer. It doesn't feel like it in July. But the days do start getting longer. Just marginally, but they start getting longer. Still feels cold, but chickens don't not lay because they're cold. They don't lay because of the daylight hours. So as you go through July and the days are getting a bit longer, that's a time that's naturally going to spark them into laying if they're already at that age anyway. So I think just before point of lay,

6:16they'll mature through winter. They'll settle into your routine and the setup and the coop. You'll get their pecking order issues sorted out. And they literally will start laying as the day starts to lengthen. So that's a really good way to start late winter early spring. Now, don't expect eggs. Don't expect a million eggs in the middle of winter. Even if they hit their 20 week mark. And depending on the on the breed, because my bramas don't lay until 28 weeks. So if you're going heritage breed bird, then you're not going to get them laying until probably August. If you start at the beginning of an Australian autumn, don't expect them to lay over those winter months. Even if they are laying, it will be sporadic. And when chickens first start laying, they are sometimes sporadic anyway. You'll get little fairy eggs. You might get an egg one day and then nothing and then an egg the next day. So it will be sporadic anyway. But don't expect an abundance of eggs no matter how many chicks you've got.

7:16Because coming out of that winter, their bodies are re-adjusting to the light. And like I said, the light and daylight hours is what makes them come on to that lay better. So that's one option. Now, the second option, and it's also a good option if you really don't want to do the day old chick things. But the better option that I think is to buy day old chicks at the beginning of autumn. Now, if they're either browns or any of the early layers, you've got 20 weeks, essentially. 20 weeks is five months. So from the time you've purchased your day old, you'll raise them through autumn. Now, depending again, if you live in a really cold snowy environment, there's probably not going to be ideal. If you're in a warm environment, it's perfect. Because just about the time you take them off the heat, you take off the heat lamps, they can acclimatize to your environment without freezing. So if you're in the middle of a snowy area, again, day olds may not,

8:18but your choice, you might be better off going point of lay, or waiting to have a spring hatching. It's not hatching because you're not hatching them, but spring purchase of chickens. But you'd raise them through autumn. They'd grow out over winter, and they would be ready to lay right at the beginning of spring. And that actually works well. Because, like I say, as the daylight hours get longer, that's the trigger for them to go into their perfect lay mode. So whichever option is going to suit you, earlier than point of lay, say, 14 weeks, or day olds, either way, you're going to get to the end of winter beginning of spring and an egg process will start happening. So a couple of things I would also say about getting chickens around autumn is don't buy random older hens because, like in late autumn, they will be going off the lay. Older birds always go off the lay in winter.

9:19It's just what they do. As I've actually gone off the lay at the moment, just because we had a cold snap with lots of rain. And I don't know what the hell was going on, but they've all just gone off the lay. But don't get them and then expect eggs because you won't get them. And buying mixed aged backyard birds, so a group of birds of differing ages, it can be a bit problematic, especially if it's your first flock. I would say you get them all the same age, just so that you can keep a really good eye on how everybody's tracking and when they go, when they kill over, you're replacing new ones at the same time, then. It's always hard to reintroduce a bird into another flock. And I would definitely say don't mix flocks. So unless you're really, really stretched on budget, don't get two chooks from one neighbour and two chooks from another neighbour and then three chooks from somebody else because you'll end up with picking older fights and there could be potentially diseases that are shared amongst the birds. It just doesn't end well.

10:19So your action for this week, if that's what you're interested in doing, is to try and source 14 to 16-week bullets. So ring around any breeders in your area or anything like that. Keeping in mind that 14-week old birds are going to be more expensive than day-olds, because somebody else has already paid for the heating, feeding them up, getting them to the point where they're fully feathered and can be outside and be conditioned to the weather. If you are happy to do the brood-a-house thing or you might have kids and you want them to be in that experience or you want to not spend as much on your flock, then day-olds are definitely the way to go and I would be ringing around all the hatcheries to see what is available and when you can get them. Sometimes the hatcheries get booked out, so don't expect to ring and have them go, oh yeah, we can send you 10 chickens, no problems. Sometimes they get booked out in advance and you have to really book and wait for a day. So when you're ringing the breeders to speak to them, ask for hatch dates, ask for breeds available

11:20and the costs obviously because heritage birds are more expensive than, say, eyes are browns. Vaccination status, now that might be important to you. You might be somebody who really wants your birds vaccinated. You might be somebody who says, no, I really don't care. With my meat birds, I don't bother with vaccinated, but with my egg laying birds, I actually do get them vaccinated if I'm buying from a hatchery. I find that it just, it protects the flock from having crap go through it, because when it goes through, it goes like wildfire and you end up with the whole flock going. And what feed they're on, if they're older birds, if they're 14 week old birds, what feed are they on? Sometimes there's a good idea. Even if it's not the food that you're going to predominantly feed them, I would say buy a bag of it and then slowly over the first couple of weeks integrate the old food with the new food that you're going to use. That just avoids any problems with the change of diet. Now, really important, if you're thinking about chickens, don't just put it on the board and think about it,

12:20ring somebody, send an email to a hatchery and get a price. It's the first step and it'll help you get over that hurdle of, oh God, I've still got to do it. I have got it to do less sitting next to me. That just keeps growing and growing and growing and some days I'll sit down and I just crack in and get all of it done and other days it just seems to add up and go nowhere. Tip number two, setting up the coop before the chickens arrive. It's not joking, people don't do it. It's like I don't get white people wouldn't do it. We're going to put them when you get them. Always have the coop done up finished before the chickens arrive. Now that includes your day olds going into a brooder and obviously I'm talking about the brooder house or your pullets going into a, like if they're fully feathered they're going straight into a coop. If you are going the brooder house, if you are going the brooder house option and getting day olds just remember that before they're fully feathered

13:20usually around the six to eight week mark, you want to make sure that you've got that coop ready to go. You can't keep little chicks in a brooder house when they're fully feathered and growing at a rate of knots. You're going to have to find somewhere to put them. So around the six to eight week mark you want that coop finished. If you're getting pullets you want it finished before you even pick the birds up. Now minimum setup, one nesting box per three hens. So I would go so far as to say if you had three or four hens you'd still want two nesting boxes. They get really fussy about which one they like and they'll fight over them. So it's easier just to go, no, I'm going to get two. You need 20 centimetres of roosting space per bird. 20 centimetres is what's that, four inches. Four inches, five inches, five inches maybe. A roosting space per bird on a roost. Like on a post that's a rounded post that's up off the ground because that's what they like to do.

14:21They are non predatory as in they are the prey, not the predator. So they naturally, their natural instinct is to want to sit up high to avoid predators. Secure latch on your coop. Foxes are bloody clever. They can open and for my friends over in the States oh my god, raccoons. I've seen like night vision ever raccoon, unlocking bins, unlocking doors, like house doors, unlocking chicken coops, they can nuts. Have a really good secure latch on it, something that requires dexterity to open it. It's not going to be foolproof, but it should at least give you a little bit of leeway. And I always encourage people, if they're having a fixed coop to dig the wire, the mesh wire from around the outside of the coop, dig it about 30 centimetres down into like a splaid skirt under the ground

15:21and that just stops dogs and foxes being able to dig underneath the coop to get into the chickens. So, action step for that one is this weekend I want you to go to a spotting yard where you think the coop would be good to set up. Stand there in the morning at lunchtime at dinner time and see what the shades like, what the sun's like, which way the wind's blowing. You don't want the coop downwind of a window that's always open because the smell of the coop could sometimes get a little bit. So, have a look around that area and then start getting your coop ready. Now, even if you're building your own kudos, use second-hand materials, get up, it doesn't have to look pretty, it just has to be functional. But map it out and make sure you've got enough space, make sure you've got the equipment that you need and start getting building with it. Tip number three, autumn feeding plan.

16:22So, coming into autumn, you feed chickens exactly the same all year round, except for the fact that coming out of a malt, you might want to hit them up with a little bit more protein, a little bit more scraps, a little bit more treats, just to give them that boost to get kind of growing again. But the most important thing is a quality layer pellet base. And I say to people all the time, do not feed them scratch mix. Scratch mix is like chicken candy. You don't need to be feeding that to chickens all the time. Layer pellets are the way to go. They are a complete meal. They have all of the nutrients in them that they need. Same goes for chick starter. You can get unmedicated or medicated. Like I say, I don't feed the medicated one to my meatbirds, but I do feed the medicated ones to chick starter to my egg chicks. But the main thing is that you get a good quality pellet. And it doesn't have to be expensive. We use lucky layer, which is probably one of the cheaper ones. But it has all the nutrients and all the requirements that we need.

17:22And our chickens certainly thrive on it. I would save the scratch mix for times when you are trying to train your chickens to come in. So if you have pullets that you are, you know, they're not laying yet, but you're trying to get them into a routine. Using scratch mix to call them and then sprinkle it on the ground. The bright yellow bits are corn in the scratch mix. We'll have them running for you. And then that kind of triggers them to say, oh, we're mum calls. You know, that's when the food's getting dulled out. And it's that food that I like, the chicken candy. So I'm going to run for that. And that's a, chickens can be really easily trained in that way. So save the chicken candy for when you're trying to get them back into their run when they've been out during the day. Layer pellets as their predominant meal. And then a couple other things you want to do is obviously clean fresh water daily. You need to make sure that their water supply is always clean and fresh. You can either have it as a drip feed system where it doesn't get any mucking it.

18:22And it's connected to a hose. So it's always going. They just tap on it and get their water. Oh, you can have it in a hanger situation where it's like more of an upside down bowl kind of thing. And that one can get a bit manky and a bit moldy. And you do have to give it a wash out about once a week. But so long as it is clean water in there for the 90% of the time, they will be fine. Now scraps, you will be feeding the scraps eventually. But when you first start out, particularly if you're trying to train them to come back into the yard, I would say give scraps a little bit of a wide berth just to start with and go with the scratch mix to train them to come back into the yard. Then I would go to the scraps. And I'd probably use them first thing in the morning to get them out of the coop and give them the scraps outside of the coop area where you want them to free range. They can have a good scratch and dig around in it. And by the end of the day, they're finished with the scraps anyway. So when you then offer scratch mix to get them back into the coop, they're more likely to follow. Oh, and the other thing is shell grit.

19:24Really need to have shell grit available to them. And it's important to do it very early on. So as soon as they're outside kind of thing, from the six week mark onwards, six to eight weeks, you want to be offering them shell grit. The shell grit that they eat is basically it ends up like little stones in their, in their coop. And those little stones in the coop help break down any of the food that they eat. So you really want to be getting that into them nice and early. Now, if you have free range birds like we do, autumn is a time when the pasture quality does drop. So don't assume that they'll be enough there in forage. You will have to make sure there's always enough pellets. And if you have cuttings or scraps or anything like that, then that would be a good time to add that into the yard if they're free ranging, because it will give them a little bit more forage to work on. Now, action step for this one. Go to your local tractor supply or produce store and find out how much it costs for a bag of pellets.

20:24And you want to be looking at, I think I'm going to get it wrong, but it's between 17 and 20% protein, I want to say. That's what the lucky, oh, excuse me. That's what the lucky layers are. Go and price it and see how much it is and try and calculate your monthly cost. It'll tell you on the back how much the ratio is per bird that they should be eating. Now, we kind of don't ration our food. We fill up the tubes and they eat as much as they like. And each day we go and fill the tubes up again. That being said, there's always still pellets in the food in the tubes when we go to them. But work out what you think your monthly cost is going to be. It's going to help you down the track. And don't forget, you can get a journal of mine that I've done up that's a chicken-keeping journal, which also has a page for calculating those kind of costs. Tip four, expect low eggs at first. Set realistic expectations. Look, if you do start your birds in autumn,

21:24whether they are early point of lay or day-olds, chickens take 20 weeks before they mature enough to lay eggs. And that's eyes of browns and the early layers. That is not your bramas and big heritage breeds. They are going to take longer. So don't expect a gazillion eggs at the 20-week market. It's just not practical. In the first couple of weeks that they start laying, there is a fluctuation. There's tiny eggs that are done. There are massive eggs. Their body is still getting used to the process of laying eggs. So just have a realistic goal about exactly what that entails and what's going to happen. Now, daylight hours, the shorter the daylight hour, the less chance you have of getting eggs. That it's like a circadian rhythm thing for chickens. When there's a good daylight hours, they're more inclined to lay. When they're shorter daylight hours, they don't lay. And that's why the old battery hen system used to pump out eggs the way that it did.

22:24Because they would put artificial lights in there and have artificial light going 24 or 7, which meant that some of those battery hens were laying two eggs a day because they just never shut down. There was never night time for them. It's also why most of them killed over in under a year. And they had a very short lifespan with a very poor quality life. And we've obviously moved a lot past that now. Animal welfare is important to every farmer I know. Animal welfare is important. So you may, if you live in an area that's very, very far north on the world, very, very far south, you may want to add artificial lights just to extend your laying period just a little bit longer. But I certainly wouldn't be running 24 hour lights a year round like what the commercial hatchery used to do. I think it's right to do that. The chickens need some downtime to recover from their laying period so that they can go on to keep laying. Now some may not lay at all properly until spring. And that's fine too.

23:24Like I said, you might get some fairy eggs. You can get lashings, which are the eggs that are weird shapes and things like that. Sometimes early days, they lay a bit wonky. That's okay, there's nothing wrong with them. They will come good. Their body is just adjusting to what they're doing. Now, action for this one is make sure that the whole family understands that prior to the 20, 24, 28 depending on the breed Mark, you are not going to have an abundance of eggs because people get really excited. And the waiting game of waiting for that first egg can be excruciating. So just try and stem everybody's disappointment when the eggs don't come free-flowing. Tip five, predator prevention checklist. If you're getting chickens, you have to understand there are going to be predators. We have Luna killed a fox here the other day and we spotted a second fox first thing in the morning

24:24two, three days ago. And Luna was chasing it all on the fence line. We have chickens, we have baby goats. We are going to draw predators. Luckily, we have a livestock guardian dog, which cancels that a lot of our issues. However, most people don't have a livestock guardian dog. So this is an important thing to know. When you are building your coop, you need to do certain things to ensure that your chickens are safe and not going to get attacked by predators. So in the lead up before you get them, reinforce any fencing around there. So if there's any gaps, any holes under fencing that a dog could get under, now is the time to pin it down. You can buy little, they're like temp eggs, to pin fences into the ground. If you've got fences that just keep curling up, install proper latches. Like I said, foxes are clever, raccoons are cleverer. They'll undo a latch, a human latch. They'll undo a kid proof latch. So make sure that you've got proper latches that are definitely animal and predator proof.

25:25Close any gaps under sheds. People go around and fix up their fence line and then completely forget that they've got a whole dug at the back of the shed that chickens sometimes escape out of. That a dog could quite easily dig out and bury its way into the coop, like all the way into the coop house. And the other one is trim overhanging branches. Now we know that seems weird, but a lot of pests and predators can come in over the top of your coop. So make sure there's nothing around the top of the coop that would allow predator to get in. Overhanging branches, I imagine raccoons if they're as cunning as they are getting into bins, they'd be just as cunning climbing over a tree. So make sure that all the overhead branches are trimmed. And there's no other way that they can get in. Now, the action for this one is to, I put down, do a dusk check. What I meant was stand outside your coop at sunset and look for light escaping

26:25or stand inside your coop and look for light coming in. And that will tell you where these gaps and if there's like a loose pailing off the side of the coop house, that would be a good time to kind of fix that. Now, so, over the next four weeks, what I want you to think about is week one research and book your birds. So ring the hatcheries. Ring breeders. Work out where you could get your birds. Set a date. Okay, but be realistic. Don't set a date that you're not going to have your coop finished by. Because week two is build and secure your coop. So make sure you set that date to pick up chickens into the future when you know the coop's going to be done. Week three, if you haven't already, buy feed and any other supplies like water supplies, feed tins, nesting boxes, any bedding that you may choose to use. We don't use bedding. We just scrape out the poop because we use it straight onto the ground

27:25as a compost. And then, by week four, hopefully, you will be ready to bring your birds home. Because you'll have the coop set up. You have feed. You'll have all the boops and bobs and gadgets that you need for the chickens to move straight into the coop. And when you do that, if you get to that point, please take a photo and link me in on social medias at Moja Homestead. And I will absolutely pop you on and say good work. Now, there's a couple of things that you can do. I have a journal that I sell on Amazon. I would highly recommend you go and have a look at that. But even if you don't want that one, I've got printables as well, which are on my web page and on my school page. They're printables. I'll put the link in for those as well, where you can just print out your own ones instead of buying a book. And that might be better for you. You could join our email list so that you get more information about chickens because I'm always sending out information about chickens. And see how you go with it.

28:25Now, short episode this week, because I have got so much on at the moment, I'm about to return to work as a shift worker. Which some people think I'm absolutely crazy and can't understand for the life of them why I would want to return to shift work. I actually enjoy having days of sometimes when everybody else isn't work. And I always have. I've been a shift worker for 25 million 26 years. And because of that, I just, it's a pattern that I have that I'm quite comfortable with. I also have some other good news. And that is that the Hendy Helper and I have just bought a new car. Now, when I say new car, I never buy a new car. I am one of those people who refuses to buy a new car because I hate the idea of driving it out of the car yard. And it's depreciating value straight away. My frugal nature just will not allow me to do that. So it's a new car for us, but it is five years old. So it's not a brand new car. Five years old. I think it's still quite young.

29:25And it has lots of features. So I'll try and post the photos of that once we get it. It would probably not get it until midway through the weeks or after the podcast has gone out. But hopefully I will have that and be able to show you. Anyway, get cracking on your checklists for chickens for autumn. If you don't already have chickens. If you already have chickens, I'm sorry that this episode probably didn't give you much information. But if you do already have chickens, I would love it. If you would post something on social media, and link me in and say, and I've had it for however long. Let me know how long you've had it for, so that we know how many people have been in the chicken family for, more than a year like us. I think this is now coming up to our, God, I want to say, ninth year. We're coming out to our ninth year of chicken keeping, ninth year of my chicken keeping on my own. Obviously, when I was growing up, I kept chickens with my parents and I was responsible for the egg birds and the beet birds when I lived at my parents house.

30:25Anyway, that is it for me this week. I hope you have an amazing week and I will talk to you all next week and don't ask me what the topic is because I cannot for the life of me remember. Anyway, bye for now. Well, that's it for today's episode of Dig the Store. If you're loving the journey to self-sufficiency, be sure to subscribe. You can also leave a review for us or share this episode with a friend to break up with their supermarket. If you've got questions or success stories we'd love to hear about them on the socials. You can also find me at www.mojohomestead.net. Until next time, keep raising, growing and making. And remember, life's too short for store-bought eggs.