Seen at the Bird Feeder

Daily visitors to our bird feeder that this city girl did not expect.

I took these pictures on one of their first visits. Since then, they have been joined by another adult turkey and one more chick. I'm unclear about the relationships here - maybe it's a turkey moms group?

Chicken Run

After losing a second chicken to a mystery predator - hawk or roaming dog, presumably - we have decided to keep the chickens confined. They are not happy about this. Neither am I, really. Day-ranging was so easy, and I love watching the chickens work their way around the yard. But I love actually having chickens more.

We thought briefly about electric fencing or a chicken tractor. But Bob had already done all that construction converting a pen in the most dilapidated of our three barns into a hen house. And it already opened out into a small, mostly-fenced yard, and we had already started tossing our garden weeds and kitchen scraps in one corner after reading Harvey Ussery on the lazy gardener's compost heap.

So, Bob (with assistance from his mom) gated the opening in the fence, patched some larger holes the chickens were sneaking through, we've been piling on the mulch, and the chickens are getting used to their new life behind bars. 

CAFO chicken