How Many Chickens?
When I mention the chickens at Old Frog Pond Farm, people always ask how many? But the truth is, I really don’t know. I don’t count. I simply enjoy them. They can be sweet companions. During my first summer on the farm, I would check for eggs several times a day. On a beautiful day the chickens roam outside of their already expansive, fenced in yard to scratch under the catalpa, dig through the dense bittersweet, or even to cross the road into the orchard. By evening, it’s hard to know if they have all returned. For, as the shadows lengthen, the hens know that it is time to return to the coop. Once inside, they find their roosting positions for the night. There is a hierarchy in the hen house. Everyone has his or her place. Some hens like to roost in strange places; this is a known fact. One likes the top of the old water tank, another always chooses the top of the waterer, a few stay in the large laying box, and the others take their places somewhere on the roosting platform in rows f
