Run free chickens!

Run free chickens!

A few days ago, Nathan Benson finally convinced me to let the chickens loose in the yard. After the poultry debacle of last fall (when our ducks and geese were all killed in a matter of 2 weeks by a mink), I had been pretty gun shy about letting the girls out of the coop.

But now they are officially "free range" chickens and so far it has gone exceptionally well. The dogs haven't paid much attention to them, they are sticking fairly close to home and they quite neatly file into their coop at night to sleep (and to let me lock them in, safely away from the mink!).

Nothing else makes a farm feel so "farm-y" than happy hens clucking around the yard.