Make Your Chook Chores Easy!
Updated 9th November 2023, first published Wednesday January 22, 2014
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Poultry Essentials
Here are our all-time favourite chook essentials that make our lives here Appletons all that much easier. We have lots of chooks that keep us super busy and any accessories that make the chores quicker are very much appreciated. Plus at times the best of us can be forgetful so investing in quality, purpose-built and time saving devices can be a bonus – giving us all more time to do what we enjoy and ensuring our chooks are well fed, watered and well cared for!
No. 1#
Step-On Feeder ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
We would not be without our automatic chicken feeders! They save us a fortune in wasted feed, contamination and constant daily trips to top up open feeders (or worse yet scatter feed on the ground!) Their initial cost is soon re-couped and the sparrow, rat and mouse population kept at bay.
Plus they allow hens to feed when they need to; little and often during the day and gives all chooks - high and low in the pecking order - the opportunity to consume their daily nutrition needs (as long as the feeder is topped up with a good quality, complete feed!)
No. 2#
Easy Care Drinker ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Chooks need water; clean water and plenty of it especially on hot, summer days. Just like us they are app. 70% water and drink little and often through the day.
No water (even for just one day!) can impact on their laying ability.
We use and recommend drinkers that have a decent holding capacity: Our easy 20L care drinker, 18L bucket drinkers, Autobox bowl drinker or nipple drinkers. All these drinkers will give your birds access to water on a permanent basis.
Shallow bowls and open buckets get fouled in and easily knocked over. Clear plastic containers green up quickly especially if left sitting outside in the hot sun
Chooks consume more water on a hot day so ensure they have access 24/7 to a good supply of H2O.
No. 3#
Appletons Coop Maintenance Pack ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Here at Appletons we use a combination of two products to keep our hen houses in good order…and 99% mite free. We say 99% mite free as it is about impossible to be totally mite free! We use Appletons Poultry Safeguard for our annual clean (usually done late autumn) or to get on top of a red mite infestation.
For residual red mite control we use and recommend Appletons De-Mite Powder on a weekly/fortnightly basis.
We all enjoy collecting eggs without getting a handful of crawly things on us!
No. 4#
Wood Shavings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wood shavings are the new hay and straw. If we have not yet persuaded you to move over to using wood shavings as floor litter yet, make it a New Year resolution.
Use wood shavings in the laying boxes as well (nice clean material for chooks to lay on and in). The pluses are many!
You will clean your hen house out less often, it will smell sweeter and your chooks will enjoy it too. Throw a little wheat or maize into the deep floor litter to encourage your chooks to scratch.
We love wood shavings and so do our trees and veggies! It makes the silverbeet green and leafy and the chooks and us all love our silverbeet!
No. 5#
Premium Weston Layer Pellets ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
To get the best out of our layers we need to feed them the best feed from day one. Here at Appletons we feed all our chooks on the best quality feed we can get from the day they hatch. Remember we are what we eat!
Buy a premium quality hen feed. We recommend and use Westons Peak or Free Range Layer pellets as they contain all they need for good health and top egg production. They contain ruminant proteins (contain essential lysine and methionine in the natural form). We sell Westons buy the bag or talk to us for a discounted half tonne price.
