Farm Diary · April 26, 2022

Two Rescued Chicks, How Feathers Change — and Meet Sonatine

Watch the episode (in Japanese)

It’s me and Pen-chan, under blue skies.

Two new chicks

This chick is about a month and a half old, close in age to our other little ones. A woman in town rescued it and fixed its broken leg — it’s had a hard road. But she lives in an apartment in town and couldn’t keep it for life, so she gave up and passed it on to us. Its comb is unusual, and its pattern and face are unlike anything I’ve seen. Very cute. She didn’t give it a name so she wouldn’t get too attached, so I’m thinking of one now. And this little one would like to say: please don’t rescue chicks on impulse if you can’t keep them once they grow into chickens.

You’re probably wondering about this little one too. A friend of a friend said they’d picked up a chick, so I went to get it. Its siblings had pecked it badly, its wings were a mess, and it was hurt inside too — it had lost the will to live and was completely limp. After about a week, it can finally walk around.

Compared with Chako, this black chick has longer wing feathers, so it’s probably about two weeks old. But its growth has stalled, and its body is smaller. Chako is this size at one week; this one is two weeks or more. I don’t know if it will make it, but right now it’s happily drinking water drops from the leaves, so I’ll keep watching over it.

How chicks change feathers

Many of you wonder what Marron will look like as an adult, but these feathers are only temporary. Chicks change feathers two or three times before they grow up. First the fluffy down, then temporary feathers, then a second set, which Marron is just getting on his back, with a little on his chest. At around three months these fall out and new ones grow, and after one more change, the pattern for life is finally set.

Meet Sonatine

Sonatine is the little sister of Hare-chan, Cheese, Jack and the rest of that big group of siblings. As a chick she had exactly the same markings our big rooster Sonata had when he was little — hard to believe a pattern like this became that huge rooster! A little Sonata, so I named her after piano music: sonata, sonatine.

Growing up in such a big group, she keeps a surprisingly low profile and gets along with everyone. I only catch a glimpse of her now and then, and she’s never caused trouble. A good girl.

Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next video.

The next chapter

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