Happy New Year from Chicken Paradise Hawaii! In today’s episode it’s raining and the sky is grey. When it rains, the grass grows like crazy. This long, thin grass is California grass. It’s tough, and no matter how often it’s cut, it keeps coming back.
The goats get to work
The goats were kept in their shed because of the rain, and they’ve been calling for a while, so out they go. They don’t like wet ground. They’re grazing a fenced-off section, and right away they stand up on the fence asking for the grass outside it. They eat fast, but the grass grows just as fast. They eat the California grass too, a big help to the farm.
The baby goat is growing well. He’s a boy; it isn’t an official name, but we call him Yagisuke (“yagi” means goat). He’s always with his mom, and he likes grass best when a person picks it for him. Did you know goats have front teeth only on the bottom? They tear the grass off with those. When it starts raining again they head home, and the little one especially hates getting his feet wet.
In Hawaii, winter is something like a rainy season, and at the farm it rains a lot from about November to February. The grown chickens can handle a little rain, but it’s cool too, so everyone is a bit glum. Marron is bored with no digging. Namonakimono, on the other hand, is digging a very deep hole.
Meet Toast
Toast is a little bantam with the smallest body at Chicken Paradise, but probably the oldest. Toast has been here since our farmer first started keeping chickens, and was already about a year and a half or two then, so Toast must be around seven to nine now, though we can’t be sure. There have been a few scary health moments, but Toast is doing well. The name comes from feathers the color of slightly burnt toast, and our farmer wanted a food name.
The roosters
Anthony is a rooster with round eyes and a sweet face. The feathers on the left side of his neck have curled up since the start. Tamamushi, a black rooster, and Nishiki, named for colorful nishiki koi, grew up with Hiyo-chan. They aren’t especially close now: Hiyo-chan ranks high in the little ones’ room, while the other two are mid-rank in the big birds’ room.
Inazuma, an unnamed rescued rooster, Tsuyoshi and Waikiki are all big roosters, yet they sit up high together without squabbling. Tsuyoshi arrived as a chick, away from his parents, with one bent leg, and he never fights.
Thanks for watching, and see you in the next episode!