Prairie Chickens, Garden Chickens

The chickens got good and bonded to their pen and coop before I started leaving the door open for them during the day. The hope was that they would not wander over to the other two homes and yards on the farm, and in truth they stay pretty close to the pen.

My real hope was that they would wander, when they wandered, out into the prairie. I thought it would be excellent to see them from the window walking down the paths and grazing on the bugs and flora in the prairie. And they did one morning come exploring down the south side of the house and then down the prairie paths. They even found their way back home. But in the month since, they have mostly stuck to the trees and area around their pen. They like to lie in a pile under the white pine next to the pen, or graze around the trees by the pond.

My biggest fear was that they’d wander immediately into the garden and start happily grazing from the raised beds. To deter that, I shooed them back when they so much as looked at the squash bed.

When they discovered the trees adjacent to the pond that are along the north end of the garden, I knew I was probably in trouble. Two nights ago I came home to signs of serious chicken activity in the raised bed.

Someone had been sitting in the carrots.

Someone had trampled through the remains of the lettuce (ready to be pulled so no major loss).

And worst of all, there was what looked decidedly like a dirt bath in the area of the raised bed where I’d recently put out some spinach seedlings. (Seedlings gone.)

I’m employing some vigilance and trying to encourage them into other areas. They didn’t do any real damage, and so far I haven’t caught them in the act. They do like to follow me, so I have plenty of chances to run after them like a madwoman flapping my arms to get them out of the garden. Do you think it’s confusing that I also throw beet greens and other scraps into their pen?

Meanwhile, the eating has really never been so good. Yesterday I roasted the last cauliflower with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper, and had so much basil I made some quick pesto. Beets rounded out the vegetarian platter.
By the end of the week, we’ll have our first little zucchini! But what surprises me most is that basil. It’s a hot weather plant and I usually don’t get anything (from seed) of any kind of harvestable size until mid-late-July. It’s going to be a great year for basil– this plant even shows signs of producing those giant floppy stems of basil leaves!