Today it’s me, the new chick tucked inside my shirt, and Marron. Another cloudy day.
Marron’s growth diary
Marron is doing well and has suddenly gotten much bigger. And Marron is probably not a girl after all, but a rooster. Roosters are cute too! Roosters tend to be cuddly as chicks, but once grown they’re quick to fight.
The soft, fluffy down is supposed to fall out as new feathers come in, and a mother hen helps by plucking it. With no mother around, you can pick it off for them — only the bits that come away with a light touch. Marron hates it. I call this fuzz “howa-ge” (fluff-hair). He already has feathers on his shoulders, back and tail, so he looks like a different chick.
Lettuce and a sprouting chayote
We were given some lettuce today, so I shared it with everyone. The little ones joined in without backing down.
And a seed popped right out of a chayote fruit and sprouted, just as I’d been told it would. I’d like to plant it, but there’s no room, so I’ll leave it as it is for now.
Our duck’s first egg
Great news: our duck laid her very first egg! For some reason, in the pool. We can’t eat this one — it’s dirty and cracked — but the thought is appreciated. I broke it open anyway, and the white was very runny. She seems to have been a little short on calcium, so the shell came out soft. I’ll add calcium so she can lay proper eggs from now on.
By the time we finished it was dark, so here are the chickens asleep, roosting way up high.
Meet Kuromame
Kuromame has a big comb, but she’s a girl. She’s a rescued wild chicken: as a chick no bigger than a bean, she was found in a beer box in front of a friend’s house. They kept her warm and called me, but with lots of children at home and a busy household, they worried she’d get hurt, so she came to us.
From that tiny start she’s grown into a very large chicken for a wild one, with a big body. And look at her black comb and black skin! I don’t know what she’s mixed with, but black chickens like this are a little rare.
She grew up as the adopted sister of Hare-chan, Cheese, Jack and their siblings, who I introduced before. A lone chick gets lonely, and without learning chicken rules it can’t fit into the flock, so I’m glad she had chicks her age.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next video.