Chickens Doing Yard Maintenance

One of the advantages of getting to work from home is being able to let the chickens out of their chicken yard. They've eaten every green living thing in it, and they like to be able to get out and nibble the little shoots of grass and weeds. If what I was looking for was a yard reminiscent of a moonscape, I'd say that a flock of chickens could do that for me in a month or two.



When they hear me coming, the chickens rush the gate. They know that either I'm bringing them treats, or I'm letting them out. That white flash on the lower right? That's Cargill.



After I opened the chickens' gate, I walked to the gate at the end of our driveway to close it, otherwise the chickens will wander off the property. Cargill felt the need to follow me all the way to the gate, just to make sure I was going my job.



Once I came back, he felt free to settle down to bug picking and grass pulling, two of his very favorite activities.



Although, as you can see, most of the time he was so close to my shoes and my legs that I couldn't even get a good picture of him. Shoo, Cargill.



No, really Cargill. Beat it. Go spend time with your many wives.



But first there's important weeds and bugs to check out. At least he's not pooping on my shoes anymore.



This is one of Cargill's many lady friends. She's also an araucana, and when she starts laying, she'll lay blue or green eggs. Theoretically. For now, she still looks sort of cool and bird of prey like.



And this is why you don't want too many roosters. Even when they have a whole yard to roam over and terrorize, they're in each other's faces. This pair chased each other all over the yard, bumping bellies, flapping wings and generally facing off with each other. Luckily, they don't have spurs yet and they're still sort of peeping so it's just kind of cute. But this is why the one on the left is going to be called "fricasee," and the one on the right is going to be called "baked with mushroom gravy."



And as a bonus, a nice shot of one of the mushrooms growing on the hay bales from last season. Note the pale gray stalk and cap, much like the waxy skin of the corpses in the swamp in the third Lord of the Rings movie. It's hard to see, but the stalk is gray with powdery white edges that say "I am caustic and bitter." I was afraid that the chickens, who were plucking the luscious fresh grass shoots next to it, would eat it and die. They, however, seem to feel about it the same way I do.