Backyard farming/petting zoo

I recently attended a couple of the free workshops arranged by Boroondara Council, as part of their 'Living for our Future' program, on:

• Backyard chooks
• Introduction to beekeeping

The really interesting thing about what happened (to me) is that I had previously never considered keeping chooks at home and never ever thought of keeping bees (they sting, right?). But just attending these workshops made me realise that these things were absolutely do-able and more than that, I really wanted to give them a go.
 

 
We now have three Silkie chicks bought (just a few days ago) from Craig's Farm down in South Cranbourne. They are more 'pet' than 'chicken', I think.

For the first time today (about 16 days old) I put them into their new home for a few hours. The weather is warm and I felt sorry for them being stuck in their cardboard box in the kitchen. Better let them be proper chicks and have a peck around their new place for a while.
 

 
I was given the chook house by a nice lady named Gill who was done with it and looking for a new home. I mentioned I was thinking of keeping chooks and she just happened to have one spare. Funny how these things work out. I revamped the house to fit better into our garden space and tidy it up a bit. It's now rather grand for a few chickens!
 

I completed an excellent 2 day introductory backyard beekeeping course with Kerin at Lifecycle Learning.We were taught all the basics including how to build a hive. I built one within a week and collected one of the first bee swarms of the year (another story . . .) in late August. Having a hive is like having 'L plates' in a car - you dirive carefully and learn as you go.

I joined a new local bee keepers group attached to Permaculture Melbourne. We are intent on simple, natural, bee-friendly beekeeping and support each other as we go.

 
Last but not least, one of our budgies (Cracker) and the guinea pig (Nibbles) meet our latest addition to pets, Ash the rabbit whom we adopted last week from the RSPCA in Burwood. My son is very allergic to Nibbles so could not pet her, but he's fine with rabbits. I think it's important to have children connecting with animals as part of the natural world. I only wish they'd learn to do the feeding and cleaning . . . :-)