chickens earn their captivity
After a couple weeks of letting our chicks (now healthy teenagers) out of their coop for short stints — half an hour or so each evening — the “chicken club” decided it was time to let them roam for a full afternoon to see how it would go. I emailed neighbors in the morning:
Johanna (on behalf of the chicken club) will be letting the chicks out of their coop near the garden this afternoon. She’ll open their coop door around 12:15, letting the chicks free range for several hours (if all goes well), then return them to their coop some time after 5 this evening. If you observe any problems — chicks wandering in the road, pecking small children, or driving farm machinery, for example — please don’t hesitate to call.
I quickly received a reply that included the following helpful illustration:
And in the early afternoon, I went over to check on how the free-rangers were doing. Turned out they weren’t doing much. Three of the chicks were just outside of the coop, within a couple feet of its back wall, and the other 17 were settled inside the coop, cozy as can be.
So, though not very impressed with their sense of adventure, I figured all was well. But a couple hours later, the following message was sent to the chicken club:
After a few hours of freedom, I evicted the chickens from the garden.
They were prepared to decimate the melons, cukes and broccoli either
because those are their favorites or because they were closest. Can
we develop plan B? I am sorry to make this report; Laura witnessed
their gluttony as well.
Oh, well. Plan B has yet to be determined, but in the meantime, we’ll just have to keep our little ones cooped up a while longer, and maybe give them more hugs instead:
