Truly free range

Our hens spend the majority of the year roaming free across our gardens and fields grubbing for insects and wreaking havoc in Beth's vegetable patch. (She gets very cross but they're very happy, which proves that you can't please all of the people all of the time.)

But we have to bring them into a large, secure enclosure during the winter months; hungry foxes and short days don't mix (well, that's not strictly true: the fox thinks they mix very well indeed), so we need a six-foot wire fence to keep them safe. 

Now that it's lighter for longer, the foxes aren't so hungry as they are having more time - and a greater range of potential prey - to hunt. This doesn't hold true for badgers though; we lost six hens to them last summer and the chickens now sleep in a coop surrounded by an electric fence - and yes, we did hear a badger squeal last year when it discovered the hens were no longer such an easy target...