Across Paraguay chickens wander free and unrestricted. Around the country many household own a few chickens. Out in the countryside almost every house has its population of poultry.

Paraguay is a good place to be a chicken. Until it is time to go in the pot that is. Chickens are able to go about their business as freely as the rest of the birds.

Chickens living as part of the household are not shut up in sheds or barns. Instead they roam freely where ever they should choose. Both inside and outside houses. Chickens inside country houses are generally allowed to go on their way undisturbed.

To have chickens under the dinning table at meal time is not uncommon. Quite unaware that the food being served up includes one of their kind. Having no inclination that they may be next for the pot.

The chickens show no fear of people for almost from birth people have tended to their needs. The smallest of chicks may be kept for their own protection in a box with the hen. However they are soon out amongst the rest of the poultry.

Chicks follow their mother around learning where to search for food. At the same time to help build them up regular handfuls of ground maize are thrown their way. This way the young birds learn to trust humans and where their home is.

For the rest of the day the chickens are free to roam far and wide. With most fences being merely stings of wire there is nothing stopping them heading off far from the house. The poultry really is about as free range as it is possible to be.

This freedom does however cause little fences to be put up around flower beds. The disturbed soil of a flower bed is the ideal place to find something to eat. With their ability to search out their own food the chickens hardly need feeding. Just the occasional handful of maize.

Then towards the end of the day the chickens head back home. Some drawn back by the prospect of a bit of maize. Others responding to the calls of their owner. And who have simply got in the habit of returning home at the end of the day.

At home there will be somewhere to roost safely out of the reach of night time predators. A few head into safety of a chicken coop, but most have no such luxury. The majority climb a pole up into a large tree. There they spread out to sleep along the branches high off the ground.

When I fist saw chicken climbing up into a tree to roost I was quite surprised. I had never thought of chickens as the sort of birds that would spend their nights up in trees.

As chickens are free to go where they please they can be encountered almost anywhere. In country roads and along their verges they are often to be seen scratching the ground in search of food. Having to avoid chickens in the road or even stop until they move out of the way is quite normal.

With almost every house having their own poultry and without the sort of fences to keep them apart neighbouring chickens are free to intermingle. There is nothing to stop them exploring each others garden. But come the end of the day all head back to their own homes.

Groups of chickens get in the habit of going to or not going to certain places. So until something happens to change their routine the rhythm of the days remains much the same.

I have no chickens of my own, but can see from the visits I receive from neighbouring chickens how these routines repeat themselves from day to day.

Sometimes I wake again and again to the sound of chickens exploring the front garden. They will day in day out take a similar route round the garden at about the same time of day. They cause no trouble and are left to carry on with their business.

It is a little difference when from time to time a cockerel discovers that my house gives him a high vantage point from which to make his early morning call. Ideal for getting the hens up and about but maybe slightly less than ideal for me. That though is all part of living in the countryside.

Hens must also nest and have somewhere to lay eggs. Some have been trained to use a straw lined box or shelves within a chicken coop. Most however seek out a hidden away corner. The hunt for fresh eggs can be a daily task for their owner until the location of the nest is discovered.

These nests can be in the most unsuspected of places. Outside the hen might choose the interior of an old abandoned vehicle as just the right place for a nest. Indoors a pile of old clothes in the corner of a room may look equally tempting.

As I go about my garden I am constantly on the lookout for a nest of fresh eggs. Sometimes there may be one tucked up under a fallen tree trunk. Other times I might discover one hidden under the hedgerow. Either way finding one means fresh eggs every day until a wild animal finds it also and the hen heads off to build a new nest elsewhere.

So next time you buy your free range eggs think about the Paraguayan hens and ask yourself just how free range they really are.