Another (quiet) farm day, another fine distraction from the chickens’ bag of entertaining tricks: swarming on stuff! This happened to be a piece of a semi-frozen egg that I found in the deep litter. The egg had probably been buried since yesterday, insulated, frozen to the point of cracking, but not yet hard as rock. I broke it open to take a look, and accidentally dropped a big chunk. BAM, the girls were on it in a mad rush, a totally focussed frenzy, like nothing else in the world even existed. If it was anything but the wee friendly girls, that sort of swarming would be kinda scary. As it is, it was fun to watch. Crazy chickens.
Our Chickens are like that whenever we throw anything in for them.
They go mad over the cabbages!
Their swarm makes a beautiful photo, too. :-)
I often scramble eggs up for the hens, especially in this cold weather, they really appreciate it!
Annie
Reminds me of Filene’s Basement ( Boston off price store) on a Saturday morning.
@granny miller The chickens don’t have sharp enuf elbows to be at Filenes! :)
That is a beautiful swarm photo…they look like happy hens.
AHHH! That is scary.
First off, I love that pic! They *do* look happy at their good fortune, I guess all creatures like a special treat every so often.
I saw my chickens do that to a mouse once…totally freaked my out and I didn’t eat their eggs for weeks until I was sure the mouse had completely gone though their systems. I was unhinged at their aggresiveness but my dogs sure enjoyed the eggs I refused to eat! I’m just glad they are smaller than me, makes me think of sharks in a feeding frenzy…one more reasons I prefer pools…but that is a completely different mental issure of mine, lol!
Great picture! Kim
your photos are super… you have a way with that camera. nice for the chickens to put on a show for you.
I have very recently started buying organic free range chicken eggs. I just don’t understand why the taste SO good. It doesn’t make sense to me. I mean eggs is eggs. But its like I’ve never really eaten eggs before. Don’t meant to overdo it, but they are an awful lot better. Your hens look happy and pretty. Bet their eggs are yummy.
Hey have you ever heard of this before: http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/fresh_air_poultry_houses.html?
I noticed your chickens are outside all the time. I never realized they were such hardy animals. Guess that comes from a chilhood of equating “chicken” with “wimp”. Chickens aren’t such wusses after all?
granny miller: Filene’s, that’s the funniest reference… I was thinking maybe of sharks or piranhas, something off the Discovery Channel. But chickens swarming really resembles PEOPLE grabbing for stuff at an extreme no-rain-check sale. I haven’t been to many of those, but I do remember realizing how vicious and close to mindlessly out of control a crowd of happy shoppers can get at the drop of a hat (as it were). :)
Kim: Yes, tearing apart a mouse, I can see that. Not the most appetizing chickens-scratching-in-the-barnyard image!
Kathy: After six years of eating from the garden, and a few months of a steady farm egg supply, I’m still surprised at how much better things taste. I try not to be too over the top at the farmers’ market: when I talk about the taste of food that’s fresh and has been properly fed, its not a sales tactic, I’m sharing my own surprise and pleasure, but I suppose I could seem a little driven… :) For me, at least, the occasional side-by-side taste test is a good reminder. Try breaking a few supermarket eggs beside some non-mass manufactured ones, take a look at color, texture, consistency, how they behave when you cook ’em up, how they taste. Try comparing two 0r three different sources of farm eggs, they’ll all be somewhat different as well. Same with veggies. It’s basically, you are what you eat, and so are they. It’s pretty cool!
beck: The guys are outside many days, if they want, and the girls stay indoors, where it’s about as cold as outside, just no wind and snow. Yeah, they’re pretty hardy. I ready the excerpts from the book you linked to, Fresh-Air Poultry Houses: The Classic Guide to Open-Front Chicken Coops for Healthier Poultry, it’s really interesting, and makes sense with what I’ve observed. I’ll look into it more, and keep massive amounts of year-round fresh air in mind when we build a new chickenhouse this spring. Thanks for the pointer!
Hello, I thought your UK readers would be interested in watching
Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm. This programme will reveal what happened when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall attempted to change Tesco’s policies of selling intensively reared chicken.
Compassion in World Farming features in tonight’s programme and has been instrumental in helping Hugh launch his campaign to give chickens a better life. There’s more information about the series of food and farming programmes on the Compassion in World Farming website,
Thanks for raising some happy chickens!