Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Day four in the Chicken House!!! There is definitely a limit to what a chicken (or duck, or goose, or turkey) can do in an inside space, and these photos pretty much show that limit: feed (and drink); scratch in the bedding; preen; perch looking regal (if perhaps a tad bored); sleep and lay eggs. All that is left is pooing (no photo for that one!!).
Having to keep our birds in like this has made us wonder about the huge numbers of chickens that are kept inside all their lives: the so-called battery hens! Recent rules have changed such that the birds have bigger cages but it still remains a very controversial way of keeping animals. So what could we add to the list of 'things-to-do' if our birds were back outside: eat grass and any other green stuff around; scratch in the soil and probably find all sorts of tasty things to eat; sunbathe, have a dust bath, have a jolly good run and flap of the wings; get away from any bossy chickens; jump over the fence and head for the main compost heap (plenty of worms to be had there...), find all sorts of different places to perch...
There is of course a major one we have missed: 'get eaten by a fox!'!!!! As is possibly obvious, we have still not caught our fox and not only that but during our night time wanderings with the torch we are seeing no signs!!! We have set Saturday as a deadline to give up on the trap and let everyone back out: we shall ensure the fox scarer is on and the chicken netting is stopping access to the top compost heap where we know s/he comes in. Arthur and/or Joel are also around most of the weekend helping us out so that will also be a potential deterrent!!
So: our next plan is? Well, alpacas make great flock guards apparently: might be worth a bit of research!!!