Chooks in the city: how an egg shortage drove the return of the backyard hen
'Betty is the boss, Honey Soy is very sweet and affectionate, Olive comes running up to us as she loves treats the most, Chloe loves to forage and eat bugs and grubs the most, and then Cruella, while the smallest, has the biggest attitude.'
While these names wouldn't seem out of place among many celebrity broods, the 'personalities' to which Bransdon is referring are chickens – a variety of heritage breeds including Cream Legbar, New Hampshire and Araucana. They live with Alison, her husband Shaun, two children, Madeleine, 11, and Harvey, 9, and two dogs, in the backyard of their Oyster Bay home.
'We got our first chickens 18 months ago as day-old chicks, and the kids loved helping to hand-raise them,' Bransdon says. 'It's surprisingly addictive. We added more chickens to our flock in January this year.'
The Bransdons aren't alone, with Petstock's Pet Parents' 2024 Report revealing an increasing number of Australian households welcoming chickens into their backyards.
'We've seen a rise in Australians adopting, buying and raising chickens across regional communities,' says Emma Collett, Petstock's national live manager. 'But it's not just regional. More metro families are exploring the idea, too.'
The 2022 Animal Medicines Australia Pet Ownership Report found that about 11 per cent of Australian households keep birds, including chickens, with chicken ownership growing by 25 per cent since the pandemic.
COVID-19 and the avian influenza outbreaks, which have caused a chain of disruption with many egg-laying birds being culled, have been some of the main driving forces, says Dr Emily Buddle, senior research fellow at the University of Adelaide.
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