Six hacks for keeping happy, healthy chickens

We've outlined six simple hacks which will transform you and your chicken's lives.

Over the many years of keeping chickens we've tried lots of systems and techniques for housing, feeding and managing them.

Chooks are originally jungle birds, they love to forage and need a deep litter to scratch into - you never want them on bare earth as it'll become stinky, unhealthy mess. Instead we put in loads of dry carbon materials to soak up all the poo and rain so it's never stinky.

Our chook house design, is pretty-well "self-cleaning". It's a winner because we never have to crawl in there to dig out poo, it's easy to harvest eggs and the ladies are nice and comfy in there.

The floor is made from strong wire mesh, allowing all poo to fall straight through to the ground beneath.

It's raised off the ground and its legs' length can be adjusted and has an external egg hatch, meaning you can harvest eggs without having to go into the run.

Another big game-changer in our chicken system is our chicken self-feeder design.

It's basically a bucket full of chook feed with a hole drilled into the bottom that has a toggle on it (an eye bolt with a chunk of wood attached). The chooks peck the toggle to let enough grain or pellets for them to eat immediately, before doing another peck to get more grain. This means there is no excess grain left out on the ground to attract rodents and birds

Crushed eggs shells are also great for adding calcium to your worm farm, compost and even to your chook food. Here's how I do it:

Video courtesy of Hannah Moloney and Anton Vikstrom, founders of Good Life Permaculture, a landscape design and education enterprise regenerating land and lifestyles on lutruwita country in Tasmania.