Chicken Freedom

I have decided that the garden has grown big enough to withstand the onslaught of the chickens.  They were allowed out for the first time this summer for a few hours before dusk yesterday.  They loved it!  They didn't even know which way to go when I opened the gate.  They started for the driveway, made an abrupt right, then did a 180 and went around to the other side of their pen to scratch happily in the straw around my chicken pen flowers. 

It's a good time to let them out because I am between harvests right now.  The strawberries are done so there is no temptation there.  The peas growing along the fence don't seem to interest them unless I throw the picked pods to them.  I don't know if they just can't see them or if they are just too interested in everything else to look up to find them.  The broccoli grows inside the fenced in portion of the garden and so far none of the chickens care enough to make the easy flight over the four foot fence to get to them.  The lettuce are inside the fence as well and well screened by the weeds growing in the fence line.  The only plants that may have some trouble it seems are the pole beans.  I've had to chase them away from them several times before they pecked all the leaves off the young plants.  Otherwise they seem quite content to eat dandelions and grass and chase bugs through the field. 

The ladies eating weeds by the sunflower volunteers.

Brave young rooster making his way along the chicken coop.

The girls exploring a ditch.

 

The younger chickens have yet to stray very far from the yard. They are more than happy to gorge themselves on the feeder while the older chickens are gone. I think it will take a few more days of leaving the gate open before they figure out that there is a bigger more exciting world on the other side of the fence. The young rooster is by far the bravest of the bunch. He ran the gauntlet of the older ladies and made it down to the lilac bushes before he became too frightened and hightailed it back to the safety of the pen. Chickens can be so funny when you let them just do their thing.