Tip One: Chickens prefer not to wait. Chickens’ needs are straight forward. Forget the chicken’s water or food & they will fly out of their play area. Always make sure they have their needs provided for & some exciting fruit or veggie scraps. They also like visits & getting their backs patted.
Tip Two: happy chickens make great eggs. These chickens are well loved and are giving us great eggs. The boys are delighting in the chickens and so we hope to keep them happy....and keep getting the eggs. Isn’t there a Woody Allen line about “he was in it for the eggs”? It makes sense to me now.
Tip Three: Have a plan of action with the chickens & they will follow you. Chickens running free are difficult to catch. Although stale bread is a good lure...but the time of day & weather conditions must be favorable to chicken luring. If there is other more interesting food (such as fresh grass seed) they will not care what you offer. Also you need to say the magic words, "coo coo" well. We will post a video once the post quake internet gets speedier and you can watch Eric doing a successful chicken herding.
Summary:We learned the way of the chicken through experience.
There is a classic NZ brand of salt with a graphic of a boy chasing a chicken to show you how terrifically well the salt runs. We re-enacted that graphic throughout the weekend before we understood the way of the chickens.
Chickens have taken over a few Hawaiian Islands. They have clearly found a paradise & enjoy it.
Thinking about getting some chickens here at home. What do you think? Worth the effort? How much effort? How much cleaning? Do you start to have feelings for said chickens? Would we be sad if said chickens croaked? All opinions will be gladly received.
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