Good morning! It’s cloudy today.
A crate surprise
Something made me very happy yesterday: I came home with crates — the plastic carriers people use for pets. In the US there are animal welfare groups called humane societies, and here we have the Hawaiian Humane Society. They take in dogs and cats whose owners can no longer keep them and find them new homes. So many people donated crates that the warehouse filled up, and they were quietly offering them only to people in the know. I managed to get that secret tip and took home most of the crates that were there — fourteen in all!
I didn’t really think I needed crates. But lately the little roosters have grown up and started going after the hens (“That’s MY hen!”), so I’d been thinking of having them sleep in a private room from evening through the night. Free crates, at just the right time.
Assembly is easy: a top, a bottom and a door that fit together with special screws. The body is plastic and the door is metal, so it’s sturdy, and it’s washable — handy for chickens too. Most of ours are on the large side, but there are large, medium, small and very tiny ones. The biggest is probably for flying a big dog on a plane. People don’t use them very often, which is probably why so many piled up. Thank you, Hawaiian Humane Society!
Wheat and sweet potatoes
In a corner of the chickens’ playground, the wheat we’re growing is getting bushy, and the tallest is already over 30 cm. I’d like a few more sprouts first — give it to the chickens now and it would vanish in a moment — so I’ll wait a little longer. They were thrilled with grass roots, so I’m looking forward to the wheat party. Meanwhile, Okki-chan, one of our very first members, is working hard on an egg.
What looks like weeds is Okinawan sweet potato, growing like crazy: from about three original plants, it now covers about 2 square meters, and it’ll probably get bigger. Will we actually get potatoes here? If you boil and mash the potatoes and mix them into the chickens’ food, they’re thrilled — but afterwards their droppings turn purple, which is quite a shock. Give it a try if you like!
Flowers, for no reason
Completely unrelated: a dying plant I replanted on a whim is now blooming. I thought you were dead! Hey, Natsu, want to go in the flower bed? No? What do you think — they’re blooming! …You don’t care, do you.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next video.