How free run chickens came by their name...

[Diane CBPFC]

They hardly ever walk or stroll anywhere - well the young ones don't, the roosters do often strut about in gangs.

[Jack]

They're supposedly "free", yet when you try to grab one without paying for it, people get ever so upset. It makes no sense.

[Diane CBPFC]

Yes, that part didn't make any sence - I paid $3.20 for each baby chick. It must be a style - like free style swimming.

[Mince]

It must be a style - like free style swimming.

We have free range here.

[Diane CBPFC]

From ab eggs

Free Range/Free Run
 
They are not the same. Free-range eggs are those from hens who have access to nesting boxes, open floor space, perches and outdoor runs. Free run eggs, on the other hand, are from hens allowed to roam freely in an enclosed facility (barn). Producers have more work because egg safety and quality is more challenging to manage in both these situations since eggs can come in contact with droppings and dirt, as well as can be laid in many places making quick egg collection a challenge. The nutrient content of these eggs is NO different than the nutrient content of eggs of hens raised in conventional cage housing systems.

Both have better lives than battery chickens raised in wire cages - however I've seen the shows, and often to get that free run label that ups the price of the eggs, some producers just provide a tiny little run off the main building and the chickens take turns to use it. 

My chickens have a little barn inside a fenced in area. I open the gate and let them roam all over the gardens during the daytime where they eat bugs and my tomato plants. They all put themselves to bed at night on rungs in their little barn. I go and close the gate of the enclosure to help protect them from the coyotes. They have a great life for about 6 months of the year - the rest they get by like the rest of us snow bound Canadians - only going out and about on the sunniest afternoons.

It's fun picking the eggs. Ideally, everyone should have a few chickens in their gardens for eggs and entertainment.

[Jack]

We don't have coyotes, but I'm pretty sure the neighbours' cats would soon decimate any chickens I put in the garden.

[Diane CBPFC]

Oh right, I keep forgetting most of you guys don't have guns do you. You would have to talk to your neighbours.

[Diane CBPFC]

This is a very cute house - you could build one of these Jack - that would keep the cats away. Course the chickens wouldn't have as much fun as running free, but still a pretty nice life for a hen.

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

What sort of voltage does a battery chicken run at, Diane? I bet it's one of those 9V square ones...they look like the type that would fit into a chicken.   

[Jack]

Diane:

(a) That "cute" chicken house is probably the size of my entire garden.
(b) When I say "the neighbours' cats" I really mean "the seemingly neverending parade of cats from somewhere within a 3 mile radius, who all seem to think of my garden as some kind of feline M1 thoroughfare."
(c) I don't really want chickens anyway. I know somebody who has some, and the noise is apparently horrendous. Well, it would be, so close to my house. It probably doesn't bother you with your trillion acres of Canadian Outback.

[Diane CBPFC]

Oh I see. Maybe you should just get a garden tortoise Jack. I don't think they are very noisy.

[Egg]

There's just no escape, not even on the Beau Peep Notice Board......Chickens..Chickens..Chickens!

[The Peepmaster]

It's fun picking the eggs. Ideally, everyone should have a few chickens in their gardens for eggs and entertainment.

The eggs would be useful. What kind of entertainment do the hens lay on? (No pun intended.)

[Sandy Buttcheeks]

It's fun picking the eggs. Ideally, everyone should have a few chickens in their gardens for eggs and entertainment.

The eggs would be useful. What kind of entertainment do the hens lay on? (No pun intended.)

Surely that should be hentertainment?   

[Jack]

What a poultry attempt at a joke that was.