‘They're like therapy animals': How backyard chooks made a comeback
'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.
Loading
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
3 hours ago
- West Australian
Emma Garlett: With its roots in mourning, NAIDOC Week is now a celebration
Today, NAIDOC Week is one of the most significant events on the Australian calendar. Around the country, we gather to celebrate the strength, courage, leadership and resilience of First Nations people throughout our history. We honour our elders and champion our youth. We hold walks and art exhibitions, family days and award ceremonies. There are festivals and sporting events and school assemblies. NAIDOC Week has its roots in an act of protest by Indigenous activists in Sydney, who held what they called the Day of Mourning back on January 26, 1938. From those beginnings, NAIDOC Week has grown into a week-long festival to not only mourn what we have lost but to commemorate our achievements and culture. Here in Perth, we'll hold the NAIDOC National Awards, celebrating the best of Blak excellence. It is what it is today in our State because of the hard work of our elders, including Glenda Kickett. Dr Kickett has spent the past 18 years on the NAIDOC Perth Committee, 17 of which she has been its chairwoman. She's seen the event grow from humble beginnings. 'When we started there wasn't any NAIDOC Week. We had our first ceremony in Forrest Place with a tiny tent. over the 18 years I have seen it grow so much,' she said. '(Today) there are so many events across Perth and WA. It is not just Aboriginal people it is non-Indigenous people getting involved.' This year's NAIDOC theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. Dr Kickett said it was essential that we have a pipeline of talent; young leaders who can celebrate the work that has been done already and build upon it. Leadership programs such as Miss NAIDOC and Mr NAIDOC helped to bring some of those young people to the fore, giving them the platform they need to strive for progress into the future. NAIDOC Week 2025 begins this Sunday and runs for eight days. And as important as it is, and as entrenched as it has become on the Australian calendar, Dr Kickett says NAIDOC Week isn't the be all and end all. 'We should be celebrating all the time, not just on NAIDOC week,' she said. As NAIDOC Week continues to grow, it is a powerful reminder of how far we have come, as First Nations peoples and as an inclusive Australian country. It is an opportunity to uplift the next generation of leaders and to bring the entire community together to learn, yarn and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and achievement. Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nylyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman
Sydney Morning Herald
15 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Goodnight to the bedtime story: The reason fewer parents are reading aloud to their children
Nicola Trotman grew up as an avid bookworm, often reading under the duvet by torchlight. So when her daughter Sadie, who will turn two in August, was born, she made a point of instilling a similar love of books. 'After bath time, we read stories to her. It's a habit we really enjoy and that she really enjoys, so much so that everyone says she's going to be a bit of a bookworm like me,' says the 34-year-old PR director from Melbourne. 'It's really helped a lot with her language development. You can have almost conversations with her … she knows all her animals, she's learning colours at the moment. She knows her ABCs already.' Bedtime reading at an all-time low New research from HarperCollins UK, however, has found the number of parents reading aloud to children is at an all-time low. Fewer than half of parents of children under 13 said reading aloud to children was 'fun for me', while fewer than half of 0- to 4-year-olds are read to frequently. New Australian data from ABC Reading Eggs also found 30 per cent of NSW parents and 22 per cent of Victorian parents admit they're too busy to fit reading into their daily routine with their child, while more than half of parents say the greatest challenge when helping their child learn to read is the child getting distracted. Robyn Cox, professor of literacy and education at The University of Tasmania, thinks this decline comes down to several factors, including greater financial pressures faced by young parents today and the increasing prevalence of screens.
The Age
15 hours ago
- The Age
Goodnight to the bedtime story: The reason fewer parents are reading aloud to their children
Nicola Trotman grew up as an avid bookworm, often reading under the duvet by torchlight. So when her daughter Sadie, who will turn two in August, was born, she made a point of instilling a similar love of books. 'After bath time, we read stories to her. It's a habit we really enjoy and that she really enjoys, so much so that everyone says she's going to be a bit of a bookworm like me,' says the 34-year-old PR director from Melbourne. 'It's really helped a lot with her language development. You can have almost conversations with her … she knows all her animals, she's learning colours at the moment. She knows her ABCs already.' Bedtime reading at an all-time low New research from HarperCollins UK, however, has found the number of parents reading aloud to children is at an all-time low. Fewer than half of parents of children under 13 said reading aloud to children was 'fun for me', while fewer than half of 0- to 4-year-olds are read to frequently. New Australian data from ABC Reading Eggs also found 30 per cent of NSW parents and 22 per cent of Victorian parents admit they're too busy to fit reading into their daily routine with their child, while more than half of parents say the greatest challenge when helping their child learn to read is the child getting distracted. Robyn Cox, professor of literacy and education at The University of Tasmania, thinks this decline comes down to several factors, including greater financial pressures faced by young parents today and the increasing prevalence of screens.
