Chooks are the ideal animal for the suburbanite looking for a more sustainable, more self-sufficient lifestyle. They are easy to feed and look after, cheap and easy to get and produce lots of things. There can be surprising psychological benefits as well. Just sitting in the back yard on a summers evening in amongst the fruit trees with the veggie patch on one side and a few chooks pecking about the yard on the other can be very relaxing and a wonderfully satisfying experience.
Following are some examples of how people we know have kept chooks in their suburban gardens -
Danielle and Mark – 2011
Danielle and Mark live in Wilberforce on a block that is 1000m2, the chook area was located towards the back of the property, which is down hill from the front. They are in the process of re-doing their chook accommodations to allow them more flexibility to be able to use the output from the chooks to increase fertility around their property.
Roberta – 2012
Roberta lives in a 1950s fibro cottage in Western Sydney near Blacktown, her block is 917m2 and has a North Easterly aspect with the house towards the front of the block. She keeps chooks, quail, ducks, guinea pigs and a rabbit which she feeds on wild plants and weeds gathered from her garden and elsewhere so that only a small selection of concentrates needs to be bought in to feed them.
Glenda – 2012
Glenda lives in one of the original cottages of the area in Western Sydney near Baulkham Hills, her block is about 900m2 and has a North Easterly aspect with the house towards the front of the block. She has 7 chooks in a chook run down the back yard.
Sandra and Tom – 2012
Sandra and Tom live in a hilly suburb in northern Sydney, The block is 650 square metres and has a northerly aspect but is quite steep. They have a chook run in the backyard with five chooks.
Zvonko and Sladjana – 2012
Zvonko, Sladjana and their family live in western Sydney on a small 450 square metre block in a brick veneer house which faces east. They have a small back yard with two chooks in a chook tractor
Salman 2012
Salman and his family live on a 700m2 block in far western Sydney in a brick veneer house he keeps a few chooks for eggs in the backyard, in an enlcosed area next to a garden shed.
(Note: Chook area is on the right hand side of the photo)
Ann and Will 2014
Ann and Will have lived on their approximately 900m2 property in the lower Blue Mountains. They have a chook tractor and run with a couple of chooks in their front yard, which they move to a new area monthly to clear and prepare it for the next production cycle.
Addy and Ashley 2014
Addy and his wife and kids are denizens of western Sydney as well and have been for years, but he has only got the food growing bug recently. I am amazed what he has done with the 14 metre by 3 metre space beside his unit, and his small 4 metre by 6 metre back yard. One neat little invention is that he has a hole through his side fence which allows access to the chook laying area on the land next door.
Jo and Caitlin 2015
This little (approximately 350m2) oasis is located a couple of blocks away from two major roads near Parramatta in Western Sydney.
Richard and Genna – 2015
Richard and Genna live on a 700m2 block, west of Parramatta in Sydney’s west, their chook area is at the back of their suburban backyard.
Mike - 2015
Mike lives on a sizeable property in western Sydney’s Seven Hills with therr chooks, the chook area being down towards the back of the backyard.
Jose and Lisa – 2015
Jose and Lisa live on a suburban block in Merrylands, western Sydney of about1998 square metres and they keep 12 chooks in Linda Woodrow style four metre diameter dome chook tractors and have used chook tunnels as well.
Growing circle after chooks have been through
Remains of chook tunnel
Moss House – Margaret 2018
Moss House is owned by my friend Margaret Mossakowska. it is a deceptively spacious 1460 m2 property in Denistone, a northern suburb of Sydney, NSW. It has a very small font yard but a capacious back yard which slopes steeply up from the road frontage.
Wonderful recycled nesting boxes
Manu -2020
Manu lives on a 700m2 residential block on the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains.
Angie and Dez – 2020
The chook shed/run is 0.75m wide by 2.0m long and is a defacto chook tractor, the chooks spend a month on each patch, digging it up, mixing the mulch with the soil and including their manure as fertiliser. The chook area is located in an area at the back of their back yard in an area 9m x 12m which used to house a pool.
After several years the wood rotted and the old pen was replaced by an 'Eggloo'
Lynn and Mark – 2023
Lynne and Mark live in the lower Blue Mountains on what is a very interesting, and challenging block. It is not only a steep block at a 9⁰ incline (rough equivalent to a 16% slope) but the aspect is due south. The block is approximately 750m2 with their chook shed, housing five chooks, towards the bottom of the block.
Kim – 2024
Kim lives in the Hills district of Sydney, on a 740m2 block and has been there since 2007. She has seven chooks in a chook shed at the back of her block.
The swings are for the chooks, and they use them!
Selina – 2024
Selina lives in the northern suburbs of Sydney, on a 700m2 suburban block which she has been developing for ten years, working on her sustainable and productive lifestyle. She has five ladies, lead by Gladys Berechooklian, who are productive in the sense of suppling eggs, but also in the sense that they assist with yard work and cultivation. She has the major chook sleeping area and a chook tractor in the backyard and another chook shelter in the front yard all connected by a complex of chook tunnels as well as other chook work areas in the front and back yard. This enables the chooks to commute to their designated work areas without being a threat to growing areas not in their scope of works.
Mike and Lou – 2025
Mike and Lou live on a lovely and productive 1340m2 block in the northern suburbs of Sydney. The block has a north-easterly aspect, which is ideal for growing among other things, fruit and veg. In terms of livestock, as well as the quite large chook area (and they are allowed to roam around a bit too)
Greg and Vera – 2025
Their place is near Parramatta in Western Sydney and their block is about 860 square metres, with the majority of that being in the back yard. The chook run is at the rear of their suburban backyard.
