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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On May 19, 2008, at 10:43 PM, Marie McHarry wrote:

>  It's only necessary to feed chickens in winter in my
> experience. The rest of the year, they'll get fat on bugs, grubs,
> weeds, and whatever else they can get their beaks around.

Happy to hear that. I am currently experimenting. Now withholding  
grain and trying to train them to come into the Taj Mahen at night  
when I call and rattle a small container with egg pellets in it. Like  
all teens, they want to stay out after dark and I want them secured so  
I can stop thinking about them.

With only three hens, this fenced yard might be enough to feed them.  
And I am scheming an overhead wire design to thwart the hawks, like  
the cheeky one that flew right up to and perched in the walnut tree  
directly above where the hens were lounging under their raised porch.  
And which flew away so fast when I went out that I was sent to the  
bird ID book and determined that it was a peregrine falcon, the first  
I have ever seen. Too small, certainly, to carry a hen away but big  
enough to kill. Beautiful bird.

I bought these three RIReds about a month ago. They had apparently  
been raised in a building and for days would not even come outside. I  
finally forced the issue with the water pan. Now they are scratching  
and pecking away almost as if they know what they're doing. Ain't  
instinct wonderful.