Our chickens are allowed to run loose and the only care they recieve is a few handfuls of mixed grain scattered daily on the driveway.

If they clean it up quickly,we know that they are having trouble finding all they need(-or want perhaps) to eat,and we increase the ration.Sometimes they barely touch the grain for days on end.They spend quite a bit of time in or near the pig pen,and most of the remainder of thier time in a mixed hardwoods forest behind our house.

We do not have to make sure there is fresh LIQUID water on hand continiously in cold weather because our chickens can drink from the pigs trough which is fed by a frostproof hydrant.

We lose a lot of chicks to predators, mostly raccoons I think,and we don't get too many eggs because the nests are hidden in hard to find or inaccessable spots.But they eggs we do find definitely taste much better than supermarket eggs,and cost almost nothing,in terms of cash.

We definitely have far fewer ticks-hardly any actually- than most of our nieghbors who don't have chickens,and my impression is that there are less flies than years when we haven't had chickens.

Our chickens very seldom do any damage to our gardens,but chickens confined in a smallish backyard containing a garden may cause problems ranging from scratching up new plantings,and eating small seedling plants to pecking tomatos,unless fenced out of the garden.

We have used a movable enclosure to keep chickens confined on a small patch of ground that will be planted later but we did not find it to be worthwhile-given the fact that our soil is mostly heavy clay,the chickens just can't whip a grass sod in a reasonable length of time.We have friends in other areas where the soil is lighter that get good results with this technique,and I definitely believe that it is a very good strategy for gardeners who have time to feed and water the enclosed chickens-particularly so if they don't have plenty of land.

If you enclose your chickens in a coop,and feed and water them well for a few days-at least a week-and then open the coop late in the afternoon,your chickens will gradually venture out a very short distance to explore and return to the coop on thier own.

Open the coop a little earlier every day and after another week or so they know where home is-don't feed them anywhere else-and you can let them out as early as you like.There is no need to close the coop unless you have problems with predators-BUT problems have a way of arriving out of nowhere in a single night.

A good tight coop is almost a necessity in extremely cold weather to protect your chickens from the wind and weather,unless you have the kind we keep-survivors ,pure and simple.Ours roost mostly in a very dense magnolia which apparently offers them all the protection they need,but they ARE well fed.On really cold and windy days they hang around the sheds or in sheltered places out of the wind.

These chickens know that we feed them but even the momma hens with hungry chicks don't really trust us,or the hounds(who would not touch a chicken under any circumstance),or cars or anything that moves.They won't normally get closer than fifteen feet or so when you throw out treats such as leftover bread scraps.

I expect this skepticism as to our good intentions is the result of the fact that we shoot a chicken from time to time a twenty two rifle (2 cents a round) which is a lot easier than trapping them when we are in the mood for free range chicken.It's tougher than than tough Frank Perdue's but it tastes heavenly.

There is something warm and comfortable about having chickens running around-they seem to carry on a happy continious conversation among themselves,and watching fuzzy little chicks learn the chicken trade from thier moms is as pleasant a way of spending a few minutes as you could ask for.

One thing that never fails to cheer up my bedridden mother up is an invitation to tell anyone handy about her experiences as a farm girl looking after the chickens.Her favorive one involves replacing a "setting"hens eggs with duck eggs,and the indignant momma hens futile efforts to teach her unruly dumb ugly children proper chicken skills and manners-couldn't learn how to scratch properly-cuoldn't fly up into a tree - when taken for a drink they insisted on going in for a swim!And were no more cooperative about getting out of the water than spoiled kids!

Some days she can't remember the names of her own children but hopefully she will never forget her childhood adventures with her chickens.

I feed the chickens often just outside her picture window.