Free range-thanks to Oprah

You know what, I really don't like Oprah very much. I rarely watch her show unless I've heard from someone that it's going to be a good show; and as a result, I've probably seen three episodes over the last 5 years. Imagine my shock when Michael called on Monday and asked me to TIVO Oprah that afternoon. I didn't even know what channel it's on (or how to set the TIVO on Dish Network!), so I asked the expert-Jeremy- and he taped it for me. I guess "taped it" isn't even the correct terminology anymore. Do kids today even know what a tape is???? Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The Oprah episode was about where our food comes from. It was in no masked terms, a biased appeal for California voters to vote "YES" on Proposition 2 which mandates the amount of space that egg laying hens, pregnant sows and veal calves must have in their living quarters. They showed film footage of hens crammed in cages, sows in gestational stalls with barely enough room to move forward and backward and yucky footage of the living conditions of veal calves. There was a man talking about how deplorable it is that humans would do this to animals. Then there was film of organic farmers who have free range animals who live happy, healthy lives. Everyone was so peaceful and happy. Really, it was quite a stark contrast between the two. The vote "NO" people were saying that it would cost a lot of money and put many farmers out of business to be forced to increase the space for all the hens when some farms have thousands of hens or sows. And you know what, I think they are both right. Certainly, the best way, hands down to raise animals is free range, family farm-style. It's a better way for everyone. I've learned first hand how fun it is to have animals come close and start getting excited when you come around with food. It's very enjoyable to live in the country and have animals around! However, honestly, the Walmart mentality most people have (I'm the first to LOVE a great deal!) I think will keep most people from voluntarily buying organic and paying more for it.

Anyway, political positions aside, there was a very interesting part of the film that inspired Michael and I to think. The gentleman who was raising free range chickens would let them out to free range all day and left the doors opened to the coop and every night the chickens would come in to sleep. So, we're going to try it. (We were already Prop 2 compliant, by the way. Our hens had room to spread their wings without touching, but we're going to give them even more room).

Michael took the top off of the coop and opened the door. Here's what happened.


Cheetah, Dorcas, Sacagewea and Rhoda hung out inside the coop for a few minutes, even with the door open.
Rowen, on the other hand, took not even 2 seconds to fly off of the roof and started pecking around.

The hens came out greeted by a very confused and curious goat herd. The goats like to hang out by the chicken coop and eat the chicken feed that they can reach. Today, they got a surprise!
Now the goats are starting to mind their own business, while four of the hens head out and walk around. It will be very interesting to see how the hens "hang". Inside the coop, there is very clearly a pecking order. Rowen is at the bottom, which is why she spends almost all of her waking hours on the roof of the coop. She is currently in a totally different part of the yard. It remains to be seen if she finds the others and pals around with them. I just hope they all come back into the coop tonight!! Stay tuned.