Jemima's garden of dreams: Poultry fanciers

We have five fancy new pets. Five Light Sussex baby girls. Vanilla, Cloud, Ice cream, Flour (plain)...these were originally the names dreamt up by the new pet owners for this white heritage breed which is quite ancient. Astrid asked if she could put a little blue bow on her chook which would be called Vanilla. Those names have changed already but one is definitely called Tallulah and has become my husband's office mascot. Why Tallulah? Just because... but also because of Maisy and Tallulah fame.

I first saw a pretty Light Sussex last year amid a flock of heritage breeds at Boree Creek, NSW and set my heart on the white chook with silvery black markings. I can't quite believe I was able to obtain the seven-week-old chicks from a Goulburn breeder whom I met at the crack of dawn at a building site in Canberra where the birds were produced from a huge truck. We are all pinching ourselves as we have wanted chooks for quite a while now, convinced of their utility in the garden.

Chickens really do make fantastic pets. The sustainable chook house designed, built and installed by Sonya Kershaw of www.canberrachooks.com.au is amazing, attractive and ideal for kids. Built of recycled timber, it is fox proof, insulated against Canberra winters and ergonomic. On stumps, the little house is easy to reach. Imogen has already trained the chicks to roost on their perch and they are starting to walk up and down their little ladder which ramps up to the chook house.

They have become accustomed to the large area in our backyard that is now their free range and wander around together chirping joyfully and pecking the dirt for bugs. I instantly relax just watching them peck away so happily. We have already started to put out our vegetable scraps for them and I've been told they'll eat anything although there's a few things they definitely shouldn't have such as chocolate.

Jacqui French's chook book is apparently the bible for chook nurturing. I must get a copy but I have found some great sites on the internet including a Youtube video showing how to clip their wings. You only clip one wing so they can fly a bit to escape predators. A friend told me her chicks the same age were taken by crows in Ainslie so we hope the little family survives into adulthood. They should start laying in 20 weeks or spring time.

I look forward to after-school suppers of egg and toast. I'm told once you have your own eggs it's very hard to go back to shop eggs.

Compost and mulch accelerant

Too early for eggs but they have been producing heaps of poo which is already going into my compost system. I'm extremely pleased to discover that our new compost product - leaf mulch - is accelerated by chicken poo which is hot in the nitrogen scale. My sheep poo is 'cold' and won't burn my plants but chicken poo is definitely 'hot'. As hygiene is really important in preventing chicken diseases we change their bedding straw regularly and place it straight into the compost near the chook house - so convenient. We also have a large receptacle made from chicken wire and star pickets. Our street is lined with the controversial plane tree - incredibly hardy as a street tree but highly allergenic and with leaves that don't break down well and nasty seed pods.

We discovered last year, however, that leaf litter makes another form of 'gold' and now know that the plane tree leaves can break down after years of sending them off site in tidy bags to landfill. I read with glee that its moisture retaining properties, once mouldy, are the equivalent of non-sustainable peat and spaghnum moss products. It has to sit undisturbed for two years to form the precious dark leaf mould which can then be used as mulch and soil additive. However, the addition of CHICKEN POO accelerates its breakdown by half that. Yippee! After trucking in loads of pine bark mulch and discovering later that it strips too much goodness from the soil in its chemical exchange, I'm really keen to create mulches as part of a natural cycle from our garden clippings and leaves. Many of the leaves started to crumble while we were off-site when the house was being renovated and I noticed they turned a lovely dark colour helped along by all the rain.

Bellchambers produce

The chickens arrived in a hurry as their breeder happened to be working in Canberra last week and my vague inquiry pending a gate in our backyard morphed into...'meet me tomorrow at the crack of dawn'. So keen was I to snap these babies I said 'yes of course' and my long suffering but equally super keen husband had to whip up a makeshift gate that night to protect our chicks from escape and the dog. After collecting the box of chicks I tried to find some chick feed which has special additives that protect against coccidiosis.

Our chickens were a bit muddy! They love their perch.

That was how I discovered the magical world of Bellchambers Produce (established 1948). The man on the phone was soothing with his encyclopedic knowledge of seven-week old chicks and their needs and just as impressive in person as he reeled off exactly how much the little darlings will eat while growing and calculated what they would need. When I arrived it was like stepping into the wizard shop from Harry Potter but for gardeners. Beautiful wooden feed bins filled with various forms of stock for bunnies, chooks, horses et al; advertisements for horses and miniature pigs stuck to the long old-fashioned wooden counter and gardeners' goodies tucked in everywhere. They do gardening supplies and stock feeds and home deliver. So different to your big pet barn or big feed supply place - I was completely charmed by this little patch of old-worlde commerce and rural expertise tucked away in Yallourn Street, Fyshwick.

Here are the photos of our new arrivals - some of the photos are a bit dark as it really was dawn.