Sunday, June 17, 2018

Operation Free Range

Since my laying hens aren't living up to the first part of their names anymore, I decided to rechristen them instead. A couple weeks ago when I was going to be at home all day catering, I hatched a plan...

My favorite hen, Poppy, has gone broody and hardly leaves the nest.  A little change of scenery perhaps will cure her.

In accordance to my reference book, I clipped the flight feathers on one wing to keep them from flying out of the garden.

What a day they had.
Pure torture for Dax.

They even followed me back to the coop in the evening. 

I thought 'this is going to be so easy'... the next morning when I let them out a red tailed hawk flew overhead and cawed at them.  The girls hightailed it back to the pen and refused to come out of the coop.
New Plan:  Supervised Free Range. Nothing is ever simple!!!