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Fairhill Chickens
Buy pullets, point of lay chickens and heritage hens from Fairhill in Ninderry — hatched almost every week, raised on pasture, and ready for your backyard or acreage.
Here at Fairhill we hatch eggs almost every week from our mixed heritage flock.
In addition we keep and can source Hy-Line pullets, which have been bred from heritage breeds to lay especially well. We have Hy-Line hens at Fairhill as well as heritage hens.
If you’re looking to buy chickens on the Sunshine Coast — whether that’s a few backyard hens, a fresh start for a small flock, or point of lay pullets ready to lay — this guide walks through what we sell, what to expect at each age, and how we look after our poultry so you can do the same at home.
A few words you’ll hear us use at the farm.
Young female hens before they start laying.
Bred from our own birds which are various heritage breeds including Welsummer, Wyandotte, crossed with a Cream Legbar or Araucana rooster. We choose these roosters for their ability to sire hens who can lay blue-green eggs. We cross them because the lay rates of pure Cream Legbar or Araucana are terrible! Note the egg colour from our mixed heritage hens may be blue, brown, cream, fawn, green, grey, mauve, pink or white. Egg colour is not guaranteed.
Typically >6 weeks old
Chicks which are feathered and no longer need a heat lamp. Recommend getting twice as many as you want because half are likely to be roosters. (We can take back roosters without refund if necessary but do not do free swaps at this age)
Typically >12 weeks old
Likely to be able to identify which are roosters so you can choose what appear to be pullets. (We can take back roosters without refund if necessary but do not do free swaps at this age)
Typically >16–22 weeks old
Should clearly all be pullets. If any turn out to be roosters we will swap free of charge.
Highly recommended. Set to let them out in the mornings and close at dusk to keep them safe at night. You may still need to check for predators although these are most active late at night/early mornings. Example auto door.
If you don’t have any current flock, be sure to shut in your birds for 5–7 days in the house before they free range so that they will know where to return at night.
Best done at night in the dark, putting them onto perches alongside any existing birds you have.
How we look after the birds before they come to you — and what we recommend you continue at home.
Our poultry are provided with diatomaceous earth/wood ash for dust bathing, which naturally repels lice/mites.
We routinely feed our laying hens with a porridge of their feed mixed with water and ground chilli, for gut health. On Sundays, we add RACV (raw apple cider vinegar) as an additional gut health treatment.
We protect our poultry from parasites with natural and scientific methods.
The best method is to use all-steel housing and move your chickens to new ground every 1–2 weeks. This prevents fecal buildup and often eradicates parasites and illness. We do not use routine medication on our laying hens, for example, because they are pasture-raised, which means they regularly move to fresh ground.
In the sub-tropics, wooden coops and perches are highly attractive to mites and lice which hide in the wood during the day, then come out at night to feast on the birds. This is why we favour using metal perches and if using wooden perches, regularly change them, burning any old perches.
Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade)
Mix food-grade DE into feed, and/or give to the chickens as a dust bath, or sprinkle it around the coop to dehydrate parasites.
Garlic
Crush fresh garlic into drinking water (1 tsp per liter) or mix powder/minced garlic into feed to create a parasite-resistant environment.
Pumpkin Seeds
Contain cucurbitacin, which paralyzes worms, helping chickens expel them.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Add 1 tablespoon per 3L of water to increase acidity in the gut, making it inhospitable for worms.
Herbs (Nasturtium, Nettle, Mint, Thyme)
These can be added to feed to aid in natural defense. (Note, nasturtiums and nettles are invasive in Queensland so we don’t recommend growing these.)
If you know your chickens have worms — or have been given or purchased chickens with worms — a spot of Ivermectin on the back of the neck is highly effective. Ivermectin is an effective, broad-spectrum anti-parasitic medication used to kill most internal worms including roundworms, cecal worms and gapeworms (but not tapeworms), as well as mites and lice in chickens. It is commonly applied topically, orally, or via water, with a repeat dose in 10–14 days to kill newly hatched worms. Withholding period for eggs and meat: 7–14 days. Sold by the ml from Yandina Feed Barn.
Seven days before going to new homes we treat growers and POL poultry with:
A precaution against internal worms. (There is a 7-day withholding period for eggs after treating with Avitrol. As most of our poultry are pre-laying, this is not applicable. Any eggs laid within the 7 days of treatment can be used as fertiliser in garden beds, buried beneath new non-food plants as they make excellent fertiliser.)
A precaution against mites/lice: apply directly to feathers, focusing on the vent and under wings, and to the nesting boxes/coop.
It is best to get chickens all the same age from the same group.
To ascertain how many birds: 8 young hens in full lay can give up to 8 eggs a day.
Over time heritage hens will average more like 60% lay rate over several years, so 4–5 eggs a week. Sometimes none.
Hy-Lines will average more like 80% lay rate for 2 years (8 eggs/10 days) then 60% for several more years. Hy-Lines look like the classic little red hens.
The Hy-Lines give brown eggs of varying shades and lay far more eggs.
The mixed heritage give different colour eggs, and some may be blue-green.
Hy-Line POL pullets at $37 each are only available when we or other egg farmer friends restock our flocks. You can see their sisters at Fairhill’s Egg Collecting Expeditions at 8.30am every day. They will begin laying cute little brown eggs which will get to XL size as they mature.
Hy-Lines are not a single heritage breed, but a carefully created modern hybrid, designed to be friendly, healthy, and good egg layers. They are the result of generations of selective breeding, combining the best qualities of traditional heritage chickens.
The original Hy-Line Brown was developed from these heritage breeds — and here in Australia, Hy-Line breeding is believed to also include the Australorp, which makes Australian Hy-Lines especially well suited to our conditions.
Reliable layers of beautiful brown eggs. Chosen for consistent laying and rich egg colour.
High-performance egg producers. Known worldwide for laying large numbers of eggs efficiently.
Strong and robust. Brought resilience and adaptability to the hybrid.
Calm and well-balanced temperament and versatility.
Australia’s own superstar layer — famous for thriving in tough climates and for excellent egg production.
By combining these heritage chickens and selectively breeding for generations, Hy-Lines offer:
They lay more eggs, eat less, go broody less, and are docile. I find they lay at 80% average for about two years and can then continue laying at a lower rate for several years. We have Hy-Lines who are around 5 years old on the farm.
Pure heritage breeds can give different colours of eggs but lay less and can go broody every spring/summer. They will likely live longer.
Our mixed heritage hens (typically Welsummers & Wyandotte) are usually running with a Cream Legbar or Araucana rooster, and can produce Easter Eggers (blue-green egg layers) but not always. These are:
The quality and taste of the eggs is the same — that’s really dependent on what you feed and keeping the hens low stress.
Hens require 17–18% protein which they can get from free ranging eating bugs, frogs, mice, spiders, worms, food scraps and/or higher protein feed. They need more than just corn. They also need grit whether or not they free range.
Happy chicken-keeping! — Fairhill Chickens. Advice given in good faith. Check with your veterinarian/feed store.
We hatch eggs almost every week — drop in at Fairhill in Ninderry to see the current pullets and POL hens, or join our 8.30am Egg Collecting Expedition with the Little Red Hens at the Chicken Caravan.
Open 8am–4pm daily · Closed 24–26 December and 1 January
114 Fairhill Road, Ninderry QLD 4561