De løsslupne fjerkræ - en haveinstallation -- Modern Times

     Som sædvanlig er Lone Landmand kommet mig i forkøbet med sit nyeste indlæg:  Hermed erklæres denne gårds høns for udstillingsfugle. Det med udstillingshønsene var også min første tanke, da det forlød, at tre gæs (naturligvis gæs. De bliver syge, men skal ikke spærres inde) på Frilandsmuseet i Maribo var blevet aflivet og sendt til laboratoriet. Der var yderligere fem høns på museet, som er blevet aflivet og destrueret. Men fordi fuglene ikke blev brugt til produktion af kød eller æg, vil der heller ikke blive oprettet zoner omkring frilandsmuseet. Det forlød ikke, om Frilandsmuseets høns skulle holdes under tag eller ej.
     Her i Uglebo skal vi have nye høns. De gamle fik lov til at få en enkelt søndag i frihed, inden de skulle slagtes – de lagde nemlig ikke længere æg – og så kom ræven forbi og åd dem.
     Nu skal vi så indkøbe nogle nye hønniker, det bliver Grünleger der lægger turkisgrønne æg. Selve hønsene er sorte, vildtfarvede, hvide og brogede. Det er da lige til en udstilling, og når det nu er hønniker, så lægger de jo slet ikke æg. Ergo er Ugleboets høns da også ren udstilling til fornøjelse for mig, ægtemanden og vores 4 børn – eventuelle naboer og forbipasserende må også gerne nyde synet!
      Jeg erklærer haveinstallationen “De løsslupne fjerkræ” for åbnet.

Dette billede er ikke voresn nuværende høns, men fra september 2012
These are not the hens eaten by the fox. It's an old photo from 2012, but it shows
the red branhces and one of the blue balls.

In Denmark geese and ducks, and sometimes a gull or other wild birds are struck by bird flu (H5N8). No hens have so far been affected, but the precautions declare, that all hens are to be kept indoors, not geese or ducks. The reason for this strange behaviour from our legislators are unknown, but we are many who believe, that money is at least a part of the explanation. Eggs can - and have been until yesterday at midnight - sell as free range or organic even though the hens are indoors. Free range ducks and geese on the other hand have to be just that - free range - to sell on the EU market.
A second reason might be - and here we move into the realm of pure speculation - that many house owners, among those MotherOwl, do keep a small flock of chicken to provide eggs for their household. Whereas almost all ducks and geese are kept in larger flocks at farms. And if we have our own hens, we do not buy eggs.
Yesterday the exception to the law requiring free range hens to be outdoors expired. We have not heard one word form the relevant legislators.

Yesterday 3 geese turned ill at an agricultural  museum.  (Geese of course, remember geese are free range, and get ill) They were killed together with 5 hens from the same place. The hens were not ill.

Yesterday the news told that no quarantine zone would be enforced around the museum. This normally happens. But the birds there were for decorative purposes only. Not for eating, so they do not count.

Do all this sound the least bit kafkask to non-Danes?

Today MotherOwl has decided that her new chicken - not yet here - will be for decorative and educational purposes only. As we buy pullets they'll not be laying. And we have no intention of eating them (We tried once, but laying hens are not made to be eaten, old and stringy they were).

Today MotherOwl declares the garden installation The roaming pullets for open. It's not yet perfect, in a month or two the pullets - greenlayers (laying turquoise eggs when they grow up, and being divers of colour)  will be joining the red bushes and blue balls in the garden. Thus creating an always shifting, kaleidoscopic pattern, changing with the time of day, and perfectly adapted to soothe the spectators' mind and allay their troubles - There. That sounds good, doesn't it? I'm going to admit spectators if any want to come, but the primary audience is the inhabitants of the Owlery and their neighbours.