YES!
A big fat, whole-hearted yes! from this corner.
Reason?
Our chooks are free-range. The eggs are fantastic. They only get organic food that I would eat, too, if they let me.
And if you only have 3 acres or so for them to roam about, they HAVE to roam further and further. Obviously. Up the hill, through the fence, across the road, into the forest. They even have to break into your veggie garden and orchard.
So what do you do? You walk out into the garden at any time of the day, rain or shine. Then you either run after them and try to catch them to gently throw back over the fence into their roaming area.
Or you run after them and try to chase them into their roaming area through a gate (that you kindly opened for them first). While trying to keep the other chooks from entering the no-go zone through that gate AND keep the sheep from doing the same.
Very, very healthy indeed! Gets you out of the office, fills your lungs with fresh air and gives you plenty of exercise.
Now you know why free-range is good for you.
Ps.: Free-range roast chicken for the same day's dinner is a very tempting thought at times.
We can't go outside without the chicken following us everywhere. They stand on our feet and peck our shoes. One did free range onto the roof before its wings got clipped and one went up the hill at the back until its wings got clipped, one went down the end of the street via Ziggy's, Tashas, Rebels, and the two Poodles gardens and came back later without tail feathers. She got her wings clipped too.
ReplyDeleteYes I bet free-range roast chicken would sound good sometimes. What do you do about foxes, I seem to remember you (or the neighbours) have alpacas. I wouldn't mind a couple of chooks, but even though we are in suburbia we see quite a few foxes here.
ReplyDeletePip