Sophie Thomson
(South Australian presenter)
I didn’t grow up with chooks, ducks or any birds, so I’m not really sure where my obsession came from. Perhaps it was from watching episodes of The Good Life. Wherever it came from, I’m now hooked, and I can’t imagine life without my flock.
I have 30 chooks, 12 ducks and 21 geese. We have a mixed flock of heritage breeds, and because we don’t segregate them, they are a truly mixed-up mixed flock. We call them Sophie’s Patch Specials.
They are all gorgeous in their own right.
The flock is a source of constant delight and amusement. We give them our kitchen scraps, the excess and clean-ups from the vegie patch, and weeds from around the property, and they all come running when I walk to the gates with my wheelbarrow. When I’m working in the orchard, they’re my constant companions, and we have great, if one-sided, conversations.
As well as giving us eggs, our chooks are great at controlling insect pests, such as pear and cherry slug and codling moth, in our orchard. And, of course, they don’t only give us eggs – which we love – but manure, too! All the bedding straw and manure that gets mucked out of their yard and railway carriage goes to the compost bays or future pumpkin beds, which I prepare 3–6 months before the November planting.
For how long will these feathered friends get to live out their lives? For as long as their lives shall be. I’m not going to move them on, in any direction. They will all get to live out their retirement scratching around in the orchard, having a great time.