Chook. The Podcast

Season 2 Trailer

A sneak peek at upcoming guests during Season 2 of Chook. The Podcast.

Phil and Anne Westwood on 4 Decades of True Free Range Egg Farming

For almost 40 years, Phil and Anne Westwood have run Freeranger Eggs in Grantville, 90 km south east of Melbourne.    What’s super interesting about Phil and Anne’s operation is that growth has never been part of their business model.    They have stayed deliberately small, deliberately avoiding automation including a total lack of autodoors and rollaway nest boxes.    There were several motivations for this strategy.    Firstly, the idea was to keep things small enough that a single person could run the entire business without the need for staff.    Secondly, an intentionally smaller, truly free-range operation, as Phil describes it, is also able to maximise hen welfare sine the chickens are living in smaller groups.    Thirdly, smaller flocks produce less manure with its associated impacts on the land, making the whole operation more environmentally sound.    Topics covered include:  * What kind of living you can actually make with a one-person operation like Freeranger (listen to the end where Phil does share some figures) * Environmental impacts of running 10 000 birds per hectare, the maximum allowed to still qualify as a "free range" egg farm * What regenerative poultry farming looks like  * How native vegetation coexists with chickens on the Westwood's property * ISA Browns — how many eggs they lay, and how long they can live when cared for the way the Westwoods do, without lights * Whether you could run an economically-viable egg farm with heritage, coloured-egg laying breeds * Egg production in free range vs. caged systems  * Use of lights with laying hens (Impacts on health and longevity) * Mite and lice control * Wormwood as a natural deterrent against parasites, internal and external * Sawdust over straw as preferred nest box bedding * Diotomaceous earth  * Managing wild birds, goannas, snakes around chook food and nest boxes * Maremma dogs as livestock guardians * Use of mobile sheds  * What it's like running an egg farm solo * How to stay enthusiastic about hands-on egg farming after almost 40 years * Use of the Kangaroo Apple shrub around chickens  * What trees Anne would plant around a home chicken coop * Whether the egg industry is becoming more sustainable

Brendon Murphy on Australian Cream Legbars

Brendon Murphy presides over the Australian Facebook group dedicated to Cream Legbar breeding.    In this conversation, we discuss: * How Cream Legbars were created in Australia * How to tell the difference between Australian and import bloodlines * Egg colour * Ways to work with faults like high tails and floppy or twisted combs  Perhaps the most interesting thing Brendon shares in this chat is why some Cream Legbar chicks hatch with vaulted skulls, a defect Brendon says stems from how the Araucana, one of the breeds used to create Cream Legbars, was itself created in this country.   The level of detail in this conversation means this really is one for those of us seriously into this particular breed.

Rooster Rescuer Lisa Short

Roosters can be tragic figures.   The reality is, for every hen in a backyard flock, there is a rooster, her brother, that almost certainly didn’t live happily ever after.   Lisa Short, from the Victorian-based Rooster Warriors Rehoming, tries to make a small dent in this unfortunate aspect of chicken keeping by helping find homes for hundreds of roosters.    Most of those roosters, she says, come from kinder and school hatching programs, which she'd like to see banned.    From rooster dumping to crow collars and night boxes that allow roosters to be kept where you otherwise probably couldn’t, Lisa ventures into some uncomfortable territory in this conversation, in hopes of raising awareness.

Hatching egg seller Belinda Burgess

Belinda Burgess tried having a regular job. She tried retiring. Neither stuck.  Despite 12 hour days, 7 days a week, she says running a commercial poultry farm is a good job, a passion. Therapy, even. She sells 30-40+ dozen eggs per week at the height of the season, and hatches hundreds of chicks per week. She sells year-round.  Ask her how many breeds she keeps and she'll have to check.  In this conversation, Belinda is beautifully candid. She shares what it’s really like selling hatching eggs as a business — the ups and downs and some of her major learnings along the way. Whether it’s leg banding baby chicks at midnight or packing eggs at dawn…this chat will give you a feel for what it takes to build a successful operation. Topics discussed include:  * How much Belinda pays per week in feed * The problem with hatching pullet eggs * Her most popular breeds * Why she's phasing out her chicken tractors * How she ended up with silken Araucanas * How to breed stronger chickens * How she accidentally killed 2 of her best hens with scratch mix  * ILT (infectious laryngotracheitis) and how her birds tested positive for it without having the disease * Marek’s disease * Quarantining birds * Challenges in dealing with egg customers * Her advice to someone considering starting an egg business