Boneless Chicken Ranch

It's such a nice day out today that I decided to let the chickens out to free range when son and I got home from daughter's Daisy Scout meeting. The chickens all rush out of the coop, gather about 10 feet from it then they all take off across the yard flying chicken-style. There are certain parts of my yard that will not grow anything because the chickens like to sun themselves there. They scratch around until they have a nice hole then use their wings to flop dirt and dust onto their backs. They then sit in the hole looking like a boneless chicken (courtesy of Far Side). They also do the boneless chicken bit on the deck which is even stranger looking. I guess the dust baths are supposed to take care of mites or something. They will also try to pack as many chickens in that one hole as is chickenly possible. Which seems strange to me since they spend a lot of the time being cooped up together. You'd think they'd want to get away from each other, but I suppose once I start understanding the chickens then I'm in trouble.