Hello from Chicken Paradise. It’s a gloomy, overcast day today.
Garden check
Watering time again for the garden and the hibiscus — which has a new bud! (I put too much soil in when I repotted it, though.) And the strawberries have flowered. Dolly chewed on them, and they bloomed anyway. Tough plants!
Mulch from the wood chipper
A friend brought over an engine-powered wood chipper, and we fed branches through it. Plants chopped up into small pieces like this are called mulch. It’s usually spread around the base of plants to stop water evaporating on very hot days, or to protect them from getting too cold in winter.
We use it that way too, but our chickens also love pecking and digging in it, and lots of bugs for them to eat move in. So I’m using it as bedding for the chickens. I spread fresh mulch in the private rooms — so fluffy! (And yes, Satoshi, in one of the private rooms, bit me.) When the chickens came home to their fluffy new floor, they mostly just looked surprised.
Dolly first refused today’s interview, then seemed to change her mind and started grumbling at me instead.
Chicks and quail
I put some chicks in with the quail, and they seem to be getting along. Some people say quail and chicks, or quail and chickens, can live together, but normally I wouldn’t do it. While they’re still chicks, though, they look friendly enough, so they’re sharing for now.
We also found a bird’s nest that probably came out during grass cutting. It was most likely empty, and peeking in, I couldn’t see anything. Then everyone got cucumber as today’s snack, and Taro, who never gets angry no matter what, let out a big war cry.
Meet Hare-chan
Hare-chan is a boy, but we still call him “-chan.” He came to us as a chick, part of a big family: six rooster brothers and three hens. Roosters fight, so I kept the boys in a small cage, and there was a bit of a scuffle in there. He hit his face and it swelled up badly.
In Japanese, hare can mean swollen — but it also means a clear, sunny sky. Naming him after his swollen face felt a bit mean, so he’s Hare-chan as in sunny skies. He still bites, and he’s as odd as ever.
Thanks for spending the day with us. See you in the next episode!