Chicken Licken

What price liberty?

"Caged birds accept each other, but what they long for is flight." --Tennessee Williams

Our chickens, indeed all our fowl, are never caged. Except at night, when they retire gracefully to their safe and secure feather lined sleeping quarters in the coop. Turns out though they care nothing for flight, but the liberty to roam at will means everything to them.

And roam they do, in gangs mostly. At any given moment you can find yourself mobbed by a bunch of your feathered friends anywhere around the vineyards.

All our chickens are famous -- the sharp eyed will be able to identify Laura Dern, Lady Gaga, Sir Ian McKellen, and more -- but they still act like fans if they think you might be a star. To them, a man with a bucket is a star, and in a matter of moments, you have a flashmob on your hands.

But freedom, as elsewhere, can come at a cost. The bird at large can find itself prey; danger can come from both the sky (hawks), or from behind the next bush. (stoats and ferrets).

So, regretfully, we need to intercede from time to time. With ferrets anyway. Hawks we just try to scare away. But the ferret type predator is a dangerous and destructive beast – sometimes you'd swear they kill for fun – and Mike is forced to take sterner measures.

As Nelson Mandela said "Freedom would be meaningless without security at home and in the streets."

Maybe our pal Kris Kristofferson was right when he said "Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose." Except your life ...

It is ironic that some of the most beautiful of creatures are also the most lethal. Could be a lesson in this ...