Monday, August 27, 2012

Ranging


When I saw this picture, I snorted into my iced tea. Doesn't Pete look like he's saying "HI FROM CHICKENLAND! Lunches served daily!"?

Introducing the chickens to the open range has been one of the biggest joys of the past two weeks. It's terrifying, in a way, the same way letting your cat outside is terrifying. Something could happen.

But, I remind myself, chickens were meant to range. They were not meant to live in a plywood box and eat nothing but scratch and the occasional overgrown zucchini. They're terrific foragers; they eat bugs and snails and grass and dandelion seeds, and from an ecology standpoint, it just seemed right for them to be out in the open. What's a chicken life worth if it can't fulfill its chicken-ness?


Genevieve is ranging, too, though she's been a lone chicken so long she's sort of forgotten how the whole flock concept works. She spends time with this flock, but it just as likely to turn up following around our neighbors' chickens, or me working in my flower garden, or Pete taking a sunbath. Also, Genevieve has terrible mealtime habits. It's hilarious, but also something we're trying to discourage: she will fly into your lap, or perch on the arm of your lawn chair, while you eat your lunch. Bad chicken! But oh, funny funny chicken, too.

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3 comments:

misti said...

Initially, in not to far future, I wanted to free range my chickens. But with our house came a feral cat population of varying size of 12-15 cats. Prreeety sure that chickens would be tasty to them. I only wish they were willing to look cozy with them like your cat does!

Kristina Strain said...

I dunno about all cats, but for Pete, there's absolutely no chance whatsoever he would catch one, even if he was more than mildly interested. They're big and fast, and have nasty beaks and claws. Also, Genevieve does this great fluff-huff charge that scares the hell out of him. My feeling is that once chix are full grown, they're mostly safe around cats.

Meand3Jays said...

Literally lol'd at Pete in the first pic. Hilarious!

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