All in one basket

I ʼm all for free-range. But growing up on a working farm in the Karoo heartland, I know the realities of keeping free-range chickens rarely live up to the idealistic assumptions of the movement.

Free-range chickens are constantly on edge; anxiously clucking while picking at slugs and scraps and whatever they can find with one eye on the ground and the other on whateverʼs coming.

Theyʼre often a couple of tail feathers short and seen frantically racing through the garden to dodge devilish dogs or feral cats. The free-range life is a hard life, any hen would tell you.

For humans, securing a steady supply of free-range eggs isnʼt a picnic either. We compete with monkeys and puff adders and otters