This one is living in the house at the moment. She's got a respiratory illness and it's too cold outside for her, plus I have to isolate her from the flock.
I run with a deep mulch system (to deal with chook crap under their perches) which gets mucked out once a year in the big chook house and 3 or 4 times a year due to water issues in the smaller chook house. It's back breaking work they I have to pace myself with.
At the weekend, the entire flock was dusted (to prevent lice and mites). It has to be done after dark, so it stays inn them as long as possible. It also means old clothes, a full P3 dust mask and a shower immediately afterwards because you'll get covered in it. I should do it 3 or 4 times a year, but only do it when I see them over-preening or actually find lice inn them (only ever found them on birds coming into my flock, have all newbies get a biosecurity separation from the flock until dusted, wormed and 2 weeks have passed to definitely be clear of infection, 1 isn't but i think she got this from the wild birds in the garden). I get to work them all this weekend. Again it is meant to be done every 3 months but I don't. I've only seen worms once in 6 years. I probably do them once a year, but each bird has to be weighed and the correct number of tablets given by weight. Force feeding them tablets isn't easy, but easier when there are less. You can get stuff that goes in their drinking water, but some birds drink more than others and it is possible not all will get wormed, and the native wildlife drinks from their drinking water as well... you get the idea. Worming needs to be done very first thing in the morning, so early up. They can't be allowed to eat or drink supposedly for 24hrs before, we just do overnight which they are used to.
And they will destroy any lawn, veg plot, border, flowers, pots you have unless you restrict their access. My veg plot is fully enclosed and pots have wire over the top, plants just grow through. Borders all have a wire mesh ⅓m high around. They'll jump it is there is space, so you need a thriving border for a low barrier to work...
If that's not enough, they go broody on you where they get bitchy as hell and will draw blood from your hands where normally they are totally tame and only want to sit on eggs for 3 weeks until they hatch... We literally have 1 in the dog house (actually a dog cage on the veranda) with no nesting boxes or material and away from the flock, almost constantly from August through to March each year. There is one in there now on her 2nd visit so far this season...
I could go on... But they are wonderful friends as well, enormously funny at times and I love having them around. Gardening in Australia is also a lot safer with them around because they respond to snakes and hear and see them faster and better than humans, so they act as guard chooks in that sense. But it is heartbreaking each time you lose one. This one is touch and go currently. I don't know if she'll pull through.
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