Good morning from Chicken Paradise Hawaii! After days of bad weather, we finally have a lovely blue sky. Isn’t this pink-gradient hibiscus pretty? It’s not just for looks: the small tortoises eat hibiscus leaves, so we planted it as tortoise food.
The chickens have had breakfast, so out go the goats. Yagisuke is play-fighting with the fur on his back standing up. No rain today, so no wet feet. Please eat lots of grass for us again!
Cutting greens for the flock
In the rainy season, the grass shoots up the moment you look away, so today I cut some for the chickens with my trusty sickle. Three plants grow here: California grass, a koa-like tree, and a flowering vine. I hear the vine is very nutritious and full of protein, and the chickens love it; it’s good for their feathers, too. The California grass is long and stringy, so it’s mostly fun to kick and peck, and sometimes a blade sticks out of a beak. But they love its tiny seeds. The ducks slurp the long grass down like udon noodles.
Madara the cat came to “help” and climbed right up. The guinea fowl went wild over the pile, and one stole a leaf Hachimitsu had found. Chickens love kicking through things to dig out the good bits. A big pile gets spread flat, the tasty parts are eaten, and the rest goes back into the soil. We do grow grass inside the run, but it gets eaten down and dies off within reach of the chickens, so we bring it in from outside.
In the kindergarten room, the little ones still in the cage were scared of the leaves at first. Shiratama was in a nest box, very angry, sitting on two eggs. Milk Tea (named for her feather color) and Cappuccino are both Sona’s young. Barbie is broody for the first time and furious about it: even asleep, her tail is up and she’s grumbling.
Cock-a-doodle-what?
Every rooster’s crow is different, some neat, some a bit odd. In Japanese it’s “kokekokko,” in English “cock-a-doodle-doo.” A bilingual friend once joked that Americans must have bad ears! Flute gave us a fine crow.
Meet Ryu
Ryu (“dragon”), born last spring, looks like a proper rooster now, and his comb has grown big. At midday there was no sign of a crow. But in the evening, standing on a stepladder, Ryu crowed for the very first time, and quite well for a first try, just in time for the Year of the Dragon. Heart’s first crow was on the same kind of stepladder. Will Ryu become a big shot too?
Thanks for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you next time!