#70 Chicken Baskets

Q: How many chickens live under this house? A: Does it matter?

We were driving past the town of Banaue in Ifugao province when something caught our fancy. A traditional Ifugao house is just off a side road, nestled between a cluster of modern day homes. It's called a "fale" and it's built without nails. It can also be disassembled and moved elsewhere, probably the reason why this one isn't in the middle of the rice fields anymore. An amusingly anachronistic sight, but what caught our eyes was the biggest collection of chicken baskets we've seen in a single place, parked under it.

In the terraces where flat land is scarce, they love their chickens. The chicks roam freely, feed in the wild, multiply without assistance, and grace the table when the need arises. What could be simpler?  So how many chickens lived there? Beats me. We didn't see any although the baskets sure smelled like something's been there recently. What we consider to be chicken homes, the chickens probably see them as jailhouses! No wonder they're all gone. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: Shot on a tripod for maximum sharpness, probably f/11 or f/16 as I recall selecting a smaller aperture to increase the depth-of-field. I counted 13 baskets, two wooden cages, and a nest inside a cardboard box. How many do you see?)

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