Lynne Mowbray |

Uniting Caroona Yamba Aged Care took on two new residents last Friday; two young pullets (young hens).

Caroona’s Leisure and Wellness co-ordinator Ann Duke said that since the Caroona community began their ‘household model’ program, residents now come together on a daily or weekly basis as a little community circle and they discuss with the homemaker and the home team, their wishes and likes of whatever they would like to do in a day.

“So this (idea) came out through one of these circles, with one resident saying that he would like to have chickens,” Ms Duke said.

“From that meeting another resident kept saying, “Yes, we’d really love to have chickens”.

“So from there they approached me to see if it was possible and what we could do. So I looked at it and searched on the net and thought, well we have to get (a chicken coop to house them) something that is mobile and something that’s big enough to be comfortable for the chickens to live in. 

“We decided on two chickens to start with to make sure everything was going to work out ok. We found a (large) chicken coop called a ‘chicken coop tractor’ online and took a picture of it to our Caroona companions auxiliary, to see if they could assist us to buy it – which they agreed on.

“The coop arrived just before Christmas, which allowed time for the residents to build it. We waited until after Christmas to get the young pullets, which are about six weeks off laying.

“We ordered the pullets in Lismore and two of our residents Alan Alcock and June Hannah along with our homemaker, went and picked them up on Friday.

“This is great for the residents. It’s bringing back memories of what they used to do; having their own chickens in their yard and feeding them and collecting their eggs,” she said.

The smiles on the faces of both Alan and June said it all, as they put their new chickens into the coop for the first time, last Friday.