So I Can't Sing Well!

My Mom has told me over and over throughout the years that if you have animals, you need to talk to them.  They will trust you, like you and get used to you.  They won't fear you.  So when I end up in charge of 20+ chickens, what's a gal to do but sing a few songs?

Every morning, I put some animal bread from the bread store (that's another post!) in a pan outside in "the bread zone", add table scraps (truly - these chickens are like piggies and they eat everything but fowl because that's cannibalism and gross!) and liquids from everything that we cooked the day before (German weiner water and kielbasa water seems to be some of their favorites as well as ground beef grease) and make them some good ol' slop.  They can't wait to get outside to hit the buffet!

I really only sing them one song.  In the morning.  I'm not even sure I have the words right, but then I usually take the words to songs and make up my own anyway.  So here's my morning routine:

Good morning, good morning!  It's time to wake up and start your day! 

Good morning, good morning!  It's time to go out and eat the buffet!

Enjoy the video (not so much my singing).  You'll see what the naughty roosters do.  They don't listen.  And they are very rough with the poor hens.  You'll see one who just can't wait and chases a hen while I'm singing.  Pig.

Yes, I am weird.  But the chickens are beginning to love me.  And that makes my Dad feel good that his chickens are well taken care of while he's recovering.  And he can watch videos of his chickens I take on my cell phone.  ;)

Chicken Chores

My parents have a 5-acre hobby farm which, when we were growing up, was home to cows, pigs and chickens.  Now that my parents are retired, there's only chickens.  But those are the creatures we must now feed!

Oreo!  A Dutch Lakenvelder that was a free "exotic chicken" in Dad's chicky order.

I love the way I was raised and I love the way my parents farmed.  We were and still remain an organic farm.  Nature knows best.  That's why the chickens are cage free, free range chickens.  We do lock them in the coop at night because of predators (there's owls, coyotes, raccoons, skunks - a lot of creatures who enjoy a good chicken dinner!) but as soon as I wake up, I run down to the barn and let them out for the day.

This is what free-range chickens should look like:

The chickens spend the day outside scratching and eating and grazing.  We have never had to worry about ticks or other bugs in the ground because our chickens go from the back of the house to the front to the far back of the property.  They cover the entire farm from North to South and East to West and back over and over and over again daily.  The results are not only bug-free fields but we get the best, dark yellow (almost orange) yolk eggs that have lower cholesterol and better taste than the ones purchased at the store.  Yes, I know.  We are very lucky and I never take that for granted. 

Graze, Chickies, graze!