Our chicken land-clearing squad has settled into its new enclosure at the Te Hōnonga a Iwi restoration site at Rosedale Park.
Twenty hens have been rehomed at the park to clear low-level weeds and pest plants, mainly Kikuyu grass and nasturtium plants, from a steep section of the site that is being restored over two years.
The chickens are being cared for by eight volunteers including adults, youth leaders and students from Wilson School and one of our youngest volunteers, two-year-old Aria.
One of the carers visits the site daily, spending about 40 minutes on chicken welfare.
This includes checking that the water supply is topped up and clean, that all the chickens are healthy and that they have enough feed. The feed mix includes garlic, brewer’s yeast and high-protein grain.
The chickens also have access to a mineral block, shell grit to help them digest food and a bioorganic dust bath (made from chalk, ash, dietamus earth, lavender flowers and rosemary).
The carers also find and retrieve the eggs the chickens have laid, check the coop and rake the mulch bed, check the shade cover and communicate any issues with the chickens to project co-ordinator Nicky Shave.
They talk to the chickens and strategically place golf balls to encourage the birds to lay their eggs in the coop, making them easy to find. So far, however, the chickens are refusing to lay their eggs next to the golf balls, choosing instead one of the steepest sections of their enclosure, forcing their carers to hunt them out.
Nicky says the project could not have gone ahead without landowner consent and funding for the enclosure materials from Auckland Council.
She would also like to thank the owners of Untangled Landscaping, Svea Berling, our chicken expert who has supported the project and the team of chicken carers, and Matt Cummings who, along with volunteers from the Graham Dingle Foundation’s corporate sponsors, built the enclosure and chicken coop.
The chickens were generously supplied by James Blagrove and Holly Tonkin from MKM Pasture Farms in Waipu.
If you would like to be part of the chicken career team, please contact Nicky on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz
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