Foot loose, fancy free

Meatbirds are enjoying the outdoors and the sunlight.

They are happily eating fresh grass, exercising their legs and “sunbaking”.

But a stir in the grass and a few barks indicate they are not alone.

Two of the white tufts emerge into the shape of Yoshi and Mia, the maremmas who guard the chickens from foxes and wild dogs each night and birds of prey by day.

The dogs had been sunbaking too, they’ve had a long night on their patrols after all.

Yoshi and Mia are protecting Melinda’s Chickens — the new enterprise of Melinda Corbett.

Ms Corbett is almost ready to sell her chickens to the public through the Hume Murray Food Bowl Farmers’ Market, held fortnightly in Wodonga.

But her first brood is taking a while longer to mature than she expected.

“The whole idea is not to push birds,” she said.

“When they’re ready they are ready.”

She ran a test batch before Christmas but her first “real” bunch of chickens will be sent for processing in Melbourne in a couple of weeks.

Ms Corbett’s grandfather instilled a love of poultry in her years ago.

“I’ve always had chooks really,” Ms Corbett said.

“And we’re always looking for something to do with our few acres.”

The chickens come to the property as day-olds from Barters at Griffith in batches of 100 and are housed in sawn-off water tanks.

At two weeks old the group is split in half to give them more room.

In summer it takes another three weeks and in winter four or more pass before they’re let loose outside.

And loose it is. They are locked into sheds after dark but during the day they are only fenced in by the patrols of their faithful protectors for the 10 to 12 weeks it takes to grow them out.

“We try to grow them out a lot slower,” Ms Corbett said.

“They don’t just sit down and eat and put on weight.

“On nice days I shut the door so they can’t get into the shed.

“But if it’s miserable obviously they are allowed in the shed.”

She’s also made an unusual discovery — meat birds imitate her other poultry.

“I’m toying with the idea of getting some suffolks in to teach them the ways of the world,” she said.

The chickens feed on a new patch of grass each day.

“We move the sheds every day so they get fresh grass,” she said.

The sheds are designed by her husband Guy, who Ms Corbett describes as “my labourer”.

Ms Corbett was inspired by an organics course she is studying through the Natural Envirnoment Centre at Thurgoona.

“We’re just trying to do it as naturally as possible,” she said.

“We’re not organic yet but we’re heading that way.

“We’re putting a lot of those principles into practice now.”

While achieving these goals may be some time away, Ms Corbett is happy with how far she has come and the life she is living.

“It’s nice to look out and see little white specks,” she said.