🐔 Backyard Chickens in Australia
Which breed suits your climate, and do chooks actually pay for themselves?
Egg prices have made backyard chooks the best-value pets in the country. Four hens lay roughly a dozen eggs a week for most of the year. At shop prices that's $300 to $700 a year, and they eat your kitchen scraps, make the best garden fertiliser, and clean up slugs and grasshoppers while they're at it. Use the two tools below to pick the right breed for your region and check the maths for your own setup.
Do chickens pay for themselves?
Which breed suits your backyard?
Track your flock in Planting Season Pro
Egg logging and graphs, feed costs, a breed guide tuned to your region, frost and heat alerts for the coop, plus the full garden planner. Their chicken app costs US$80 a year. Ours is A$79 once, forever, and it grows vegetables too.
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Quick answers
Three to four hens. In peak season each lays 5 to 6 eggs a week, so four hens give you about two dozen weekly, enough for a family with some to give away.
Almost certainly yes. Most Australian councils allow 4 to 6 hens (no roosters) on residential blocks without a permit. Check your council's site for coop placement rules, usually a metre off boundaries.
Ten minutes a day: open, feed, water, collect eggs, lock up at dusk. A monthly coop clean. Less work than a dog, and the dog doesn't make breakfast.
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