There is a motley collection of animals on the farm: cows, turkeys and chickens, rabbits, dogs and cats. And, in my first few years of visiting, starting from 1996: ducks and geese as well.
The cows are left out in the fields to graze, and would only come in for their vaccinations, or if the weather is going to turn bad.
The dogs and cats are free to wander around, although most of their time is spent in a horizontal position in the shade out of the hot summer sun. (Temperatures here could get to 42C.) Hard life being a dog or a cat.
The turkeys and chickens are kept in a corralled area, but on my visit last summer, I saw a lone hen running around, staying close to Dino (see blog entry Dino the dirty dog). They went everywhere together.
Upon enquiry, it turned out that she hated being cooped up like the rest of her fowl folk, and kept breaking out. After the nth time of catching her and returning her to the corral, Colette’s mother Jeanette decided to let her be. The hen never gave her any more trouble after that.
Colette’s father Serge left some bales of hay in the barn/garage area, and the hen took to laying an egg on top of one of the bales. After Serge removed the bales, she carried on laying her eggs there, straight onto the concrete floor, in the exact same spot where she’d been laying them thus far.
(France, August/September 2010)
(France, August/September 2010)
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