This past weekend we took a day trip to a town on the outskirts of Newport, Rhode Island named Bristol.  We happened to discover a real gem, Coggeshall Farm.  The best part about this working museum is that it is based upon a 1799 homestead and you can touch everything!  In fact, it is encouraged that you look in every building, closed or not, touch the farm animals, explore the fields and the gardens.  The farm raises heritage breeds of chickens, ducks, sheep, oxen, donkeys, turkeys and horses.  You can explore the farmhouse with a real working kitchen complete with hearth cooking.  Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed chicken watching.

Raising rarer heritage breeds of chickens like Dominiques and Speckled Sussex enables them to not only be more historically accurate but in their opinion have better options when it comes to free-ranging.  Despite being open to predators galore, rarely are their birds ever taken.  In fact, many of these birds prefer to be outside all year long meandering through the gardens and the fields.

a 1799 chicken run