Thursday, November 9, 2017

Day 9: The Case for Chicken Contrariness

Chickens are said to have excellent memories and can even tell the difference in 100 faces of people and animals.  
I believe it.  
They will almost always make a beeline for the places they aren't supposed to be, places I've run them out of.   It makes no difference if they've got 40 acres to graze in to their hearts'  content.
No matter how much fresh green grass, no matter how many bugs and worms they could find if they just looked, they will inevitably head straight for forbidden fruit.  
If there are tomatoes ripening, they will find them.  
If I've just planted something, they'll dig it up. 
If I have a beautiful ornamental cabbage showing off its colors, they will track it down and give it a trim.  
That's what happened to these about a month ago.  The chickens found my ornamental cabbage and kale and picked them almost down to the bare stalks. 
They also kicked some pansies out of the bed where I'd just planted them, so we've been keeping the chickens confined lately. 
Surprisingly,  in just a few short weeks, the plants have rebounded to look like this.  Who'da thunk it?  
I mean, I'm reeeeaally impressed.  


So, I felt sorry for these ornery birds and turned them out the past couple of nights for some fresh pickens.  

Where do they go?  Straight for my ornamental cabbage and kale.  


Here's another interesting little factoid:  Did you know that a chicken can live a little while without its head?  

Just saying'...




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