VEG Chook Systems
Backyard chickens are a win-win, and there is nothing like a few chickens in your yard to increase the amount of food you can grow. It’s not just the eggs and the wonderful company, but the free fertiliser and pest-control services that mean chickens boost your urban farm status up many levels. You can also offer some chooks a great life, far away from the cruel conditions of overcrowded barns or cages. See here if you need a hand to convince your family members that chooks are a goer for you.
Chicken Houses
VEG offers both a small and a large chook house which include roosts and laying box and everything else any self-respecting chook house should have. There are many chook houses available on the market these days, but we developed our own because we’ve found nothing else made locally that is solid and built to last, uses ethical, sustainable and completely untreated materials, and most importantly, integrates seamlessly with other aspects of an edible garden (making it easy to manage and productively use the chickens to manure, pest control, de-weed and debug your garden). VEG Chook Houses are finished to a high standard in our Brunswick warehouse and are almost 100% made from locally and ethically sourced untreated Cypress macrocarpa timber. In addition, they have:
- A pitched roof with vented mesh ends ensuring adequate airflow for Melbourne summers
- An egg access door and a separate door for the chooks to enter and exit
- Solid galvanised gate-style hinges and latches
- Sturdy roosts
- Removable cypress laying box
- Steel mesh floor for easy manure management and additional ventilation
- A step to hop up into the house one, which has proved also a favourite spot just to hang out
You can see a short clip of one of our large chook houses and a standard strawyard installed here and another (custom-fit to a steep site) here.
VEG Small Chook House
Measuring 1150mm long by 900mm wide by 1600mm high, our small chook house sits 550mm above the ground on four posts and will comfortably house up to four chooks (or five little ones).
Probably our favourite feature is having the chook manure drop straight through the chook house floor onto waiting straw, woodchips, or even a wheelbarrow for easy transport to your veggies and fruit trees. It just makes sense.
We can either build our chook houses in our Brunswick warehouse then transport them to your site by trailer and help get them in place, or you can pick them up by appointment.
Price
$895 with free pick up from the VEG warehouse, or a small delivery fee. Contact us to order
VEG Large Chook House
Measuring 1450mm long by 950mm wide by 1650mm high, our large chook house sits 550mm above the ground on four posts and will comfortably house up to eight chooks.
Price
Fully built: $1100 with free pick up from the VEG warehouse, or a small delivery fee. Contact us to order
Note: We will happily custom build chook houses in smaller or larger sizes as required, or with extra doors etc.
Chicken Straw Yards
100% fox-proof and custom-built to any specifications, our straw yards adjoin or include the house and we use solid cypress posts and beams and an innovative double door and hatch system to let you control the movement of the chooks without any chaos. You can read a bit about why straw yards are just such a great part of any chook system here. We see so many flimsy houses and pens that fall apart after a year or two that we’ve been moved to build something solid and functional that will last many, many decades.
Prices
Standard 2x3m straw yard installed including barn-style double gate and sliding run access door for chooks: $2100. Contact us to order
Chicken Runs
The ladies appreciate some space to take a little jog, and we can put in runs of any size and shape with any gates required. Here’s some examples of some VEG Chook runs:
We run cypress batons along the top of the fence for a cleaner finish, tighter wire, and a nice ledge to lean on and admire the chooks. Contact us for a quote.
Chicken-Powered Orchards
“Which will it be? Chooks or fruit trees? I mean, I’ve only got so much room out there…”
The answer, our friends, is to have both. Chooks and orchard systems are completely complimentary. Chooks suppress grass, provide pest control and fertilise your orchard, while the orchard provides your chooks with shelter and all the excess fruit you don’t eat. Contact us to find out how you can save by having your orchard and chooks installed as a single integrated system supplying eggs, fruit and immense satisfaction.
If you are not sure about the best way to organise your yard, and need design assistance in siting and organising your system – we can come and perform a design consultancy to make sure you get the most out of your system.
Not sure if you can keep chooks in Melbourne? Click here.
