Venturing Outside

 

Before the snow began to fall again last week, the chickens had an opportunity to come outside.  It took them a while to build up courage to venture out, all except for Blue who tends to be very cautious and somewhat nervous. They enjoyed a bit of time pecking at the grass before the dog barked at a passing raven and they scurried inside again.  The chickens have come to know Teaka (my dog) as a source to signal danger - generally the job of a rooster.  When the chickens were free ranging we used to have a problem with falcons as a predator and lost a number of chickens to them.  We trained Teaka to know them as 'hawk' and if we yelled hawk she would run out looking to the sky to spot the predator and chase it away from the property across the farmer's field. The chickens would consequently scurry for shelter under the nearest tree.

There was often conflict between our rooster Oscar and Teaka as the rooster never learned that the puppy grown to 45lb dog was a friend and not a foe.  Teaka meanwhile thought teasing Oscar was a lot of fun.  If you have never had an encounter with a rooster believe me when I say they can be vicious and I have had many the gigantic bruise on my leg when Oscar thought I might be intruding on his girl's territory and he boxed me with his legs.

This was Ocscar 💖