Free Ranging and Egg Finding

Oh, my chickies have grown up so fast it has amazed me!

And the fact that my little farm-boys have matured with them is not lost on me.  Well, two of them have anyway.  DS1 is still working on the impulse control -- he lost chicken access for the entire month of August; we shall see when September comes.  DS2 wants let them out, put them away, and feed them.  He's definitely an animal lover.  However, it's to the point where he wants to put them away and will keep himself awake at night hoping I'll give in and let him go out with me to close the coop at night.  DS3 really digs finding the eggs -- he's so solicitous in checking at least 5 times a day.

Now, these things sometimes exasperate me.  There are times when their helping causes them to fight over who will do said chore. There are times when they get so excited about the chickens that they remind me of the monster in the Bugs Bunny cartoon squeezing vigorously with, "and I will hug him and love him and call him George!"  Yeah... I can almost hear a chicken saying... Please stop loving me!

Free-range chickens!  How fun it is to watch them.

We've started letting them free-range in the yard. It's healthier for the chickens -- more natural -- and saves on buying commercial feed.  It's good for the grass, too!  However, it means a foot-washing at the end of the day (our boys are barefoot backyarders). As for the dog, Tula leaves them alone for the most part. She doesn't hunt, just herd. Only problem is the chickens follow her directions and go back to the pen, so we sometimes keep her in the house when they are out and about.

Enjoying the grass and bugs.

They seem to make laps through the yard, as a flock.  Out of the pen, into the straw in the shed, under the truck, down to my empty salad garden for a dirt bath, find some bugs in the herb garden, peck in the dirt and grass near the fence, up to the grapes for more bugs and old fruit, then around the hosta bed and back to the pen area.  Other times the loop takes them back around the garage to the pumpkin patch and down to the firewood piles and strawberry patch.  It's fun to watch a chicken realize the others have moved on -- wow, can they run!



A caviat on free-range.  You may step in "fertilizer" while walking through your yard.  You may also find eggs in odd places.  So far we haven't, but I have a friend who found a stash in the grasses out in the yard.  I heard of another who found them in the hay baler.

They are just fun to watch -- I think I may institute a half-hour of quite chicken-watching when I can each night #serenity!

This week also saw the end of an era -- no more MR in our coop.  He took after DS3 a few times; he was not causing terrible injury, just a scratch and a peck.  Still, I wouldn't keep a dog that bites my kids, and I wouldn't keep a Roo that does the same.  The other reason was that he was jumping ON the hens... as in that kind of jumping.  No thanks, would like to eat eggs for breakfast, not chickies.

Note Mr Red Roo in the center -- bye bye bird :(

So today while the kids were at school and DS3 and I were at MOPS, DH took care of the messy business.  I'll not gross you all out with details... don't want activists upset.  It was humane, it was practical.  He is in the freezer... we don't kill to let an animal go to waste.  We've already begun this training with the boys. As their interest in target shooting grows, they will eventually want to hunt.  They understand we only kill an animal for food or to protect ourselves or others -- and we waste as little as possible.

We now can say we are getting eggs regularly, too!  I think our girls started laying a little early because the older one was eating the layer feed.  To begin with the older hen (our foster chicken Speckles) was laying her eggs under the coop when it was so hot this summer.  Now they've all figured out the nesting boxes, and are laying regularly!  In fact they seem to have no qualms about laying in "someone else's box."  I'm blessed and thankful to be able to share out of our abundance!  They are small now (except for Speckles' egg) so we use 2 peewee eggs for 1 large/extra large egg in recipes.  They are already getting bigger, so I'm sure they will continue to do so.

Community nest  -- we are getting 6-8 per day!

Now, through this process (and harvesting season in the garden) -- I'm just amazed into be grateful to the Provider for the food in front of us and the work of our hands that brings it about.  It really is a joyful experience to let everything you do be for His glory.  Not because I provide food for my family, but because He does!  I'm just the one who gets to muck out the coop ;)  Blessings to you and all of your endeavors, messy and joyful alike!