Ranging Free

Our first attempt to let the chickens out would have been quite comic to any observers. Hubby had been told they're easy to catch and he had also been told he should clip their wings, so the first weekend he decided we should let them out one at a time and clip their wings. Well, we soon learnt that they are not easy to catch if they don't want to be caught, and we were still pretty much strangers to them. The second problem came after hubby had caught Betsy, but we couldn't agree on which part of her wing to clip. I wasn't sure it was the bit he said, so I thought it best not to do anything. Besides, clipping her wing the first time we picked her up didn't strike me as the best way to reassure her we meant her no harm. So, to date, our chickens have unclipped wings.

Last weekend we let them out again, and hubby had been assured that chickens will just follow you around. Whoever said that doesn't know our chickens. They ranged wide and started to get a bit to close to the garden gate, so we herded them back into their ark with washing up bowls - we have several year's worth of old ones in the garden as they come in useful for all sorts of things.

So this weekend we decided to take control and bought some plastic mesh and poles to fence them off where we wanted them to be. It also proved useful for herding them to the new position for their ark as we are moving it once a week at present.















Betsy and Robin



Betsy and Amber




















Amber the acrobat















Three chickens sharing a dust bath (no chickens were harmed in the process)


'Let me just reach that bit in there . . .'