The Chickens 

Our first three chickens were three ISA Brown    The fully enclosed chicken run and the chook house

No farm without chickens! A large corner of the kitchen garden seemed to be the ideal place for a chicken run. We were not really sure if free ranging would work for us here. Stray cats are a problem. Birds can take chicken easily too. Tasmanian Devils were a big problem for chickens in our area not so long ago. We decided to completely enclose the run in chicken mesh to be on the safe side. And we built a chook house, of course. Then we bought the chickens, 18 weeks old, three ISA Brown. They are a cross between Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites. 
They seemed to be healthy, large and friendly chooks, not flighty at all. We kept them in the run for the first month, so that they would get accustomed to the run and the chook house. After that time we started to let them free range. That worked very well. The chickens seem to be able to look after themselves. They like to wander across the paddocks in the company of the ponies. Now we let the chickens out in the morning and close the run at dark. We feed the chickens with about one quarter of the amount of layer mix recommended for caged chickens. Most of the times even this is too much and won't be eaten up. The chickens just find a huge amount of food out in the bush and on the paddocks. We get three eggs per day most days. The weight of the eggs is huge: around 70g.

December 2007: a Tasmanian Devil is looking for a tasty meal 
Everything had worked so well with the chickens, that we didn't bother to lock them up at night any longer, we just got a little lazy. Until horrible screams made us jump out of the bed at 2.00AM one early morning. We rushed outside and found a young Tasmanian Devil in the chicken run. Two chickens had fled, but one was cornered by the Devil. He must have been quite inexperienced, otherwise he would have already killed it and left. But the chicken was unharmed and the Tasmanian Devil fled without it. The other two were back in the morning as well. We took this photo of the Tasmanian Devil at the wildlife park at Mole Creek. 

March 2008: ISA Browns are not such a good idea after all
One of our brown chooks died. It was only a little over a year old and hadn't seemed sick at all. These first chooks were ISA Browns. They lay large brown eggs and are very gentle and affectionate birds. At least, ours are (were). We researched ISA Browns a little more and were surprised: ISA Browns are a designer breed and were bred for the production of large eggs, more than 300 in the first year. ISA stands for Institut de Sélection Animale. After that, the birds will die or the egg farmers get rid of them (what a horrible thought). Not really a good situation, and absolutely not what we stand for. We want to have healthy birds that live longer, and it doesn't matter, if they lay less eggs and smaller ones. 
We found a free range poultry farm not far from Hobart, that breeds Australorps, White Leghorns and Crossbreds, a cross between White Leghorns and Australorps. We bought 3 Crossbreds at point of lay. Let's see how we go with this breed!

Three new chickens: Crossbreds from a free range poultry farm near Hobart. Strong birds that eat more, lay smaller eggs and -hopefully- live longer, healthier lives.

New chooks and old chooks
Chickens have a strict pecking order in their flock and we were warned to be careful when introducing the new chooks to the older birds. Indeed, the two old birds were chasing the new ones around and were trying to peck them. For a couple of weeks we let the old ones free range during the day while the new birds were left in the chook run. At night time all of them were locked up in the chook house together but we made sure to separate them at first light again. They got used to each other gradually and now form one flock. It was really funny to see, how the three new birds were not allowed to roost on the perch at night in the beginning, but how over the weeks first one, then two white birds joined the brown ones on the perch. We still wait for Crossbred number three to achieve "perch roosting status."

Different chooks, different eggs: ISA Brown eggs on the left, 70g. White Crossbred eggs on the right.  They only weigh 50g, but the chooks  are of the same size! A much healthier  situation. And the Crossbreds eat more as well.