Hello from Pen-chan and me — blue sky again.
Chick time
I let the chicks out. Ilima, the only brown one, can now get along with everyone, so they all live together. When chicks are happy they run, jump and make strange moves, which looks like a threat to the grown-ups, so the adults give warning calls. All that running around and small squabbling is how chicks slowly learn to be part of a flock.
The busy nest box
The nest box is crowded as ever, with Kombu, Nana, Mikan and Nuts inside and another hen peeking down from above. Strangely, lots of eggs are piling up in the other box. I think the would-be mothers in the busy box, who want to sit on eggs, are so scary that the others go all the way over there to lay. Imagine being hassled like that while your belly hurts from laying! Still, a few brave hens lay in the busy box anyway.
Then everyone sunbathed together. Lilac was tucked under Gin-chan’s wing, Chico looked blissful, and Kin-chan flopped over as if dead. Don’t worry — alive and well.
A new hose nozzle
It was hot, and I was in the garden, so: watering. I bought a cheap spray head for the hose, and it’s surprisingly handy. Mist: real mist! Jet: it shot about 5 meters. Shower: perfect for the garden. I used it on the broccoli and lettuce I planted yesterday, which were looking droopy.
The hose doesn’t quite reach the banana, so I watered it from a distance. Bananas grow in humid rainforests, so it’s good to water the leaves too; the moisture helps new leaves open.
Meet Moo-chan
Moo-chan is a very fierce rooster. He was raised by everyone at a kind of shared housing complex, but kids handled him roughly, he became aggressive, and he had to be given up. That’s how he came to us.
Today I let him out to play. Honestly, he’s scary — he bit me on the way out. Once I pick him up he accepts it and stays still, but put him down and he kicks right away, even while scratching at the dirt and glaring at me sideways. He probably has fighting-chicken blood, so he kicks hard, again and again. His comb, the symbol of a rooster, is very impressive; I suspect he’s full of testosterone. He even put a hole in my finger.
So just because a rooster like Taro is friendly doesn’t mean every rooster will be. Moo-chan was raised with lots of love, and none of this is his fault. Please don’t get a rooster without a good reason.
Thank you for watching, and see you in the next episode!