Farm Diary · February 23, 2024

Episode 300! Meet Nanoaru, and a Nest Box Full of Balloons

Watch the episode (in Japanese)

Hello from Chicken Paradise Hawaii — it’s me and Salmon, under blue skies again. And this is our 300th episode!

Bananas I somehow missed

One banana plant has a good bunch on it, I just noticed a second one not yet flowering, and then a third already half open! I must have missed it for about a month, even while cutting leaves right there.

A banana trunk is thick, and since a banana is really a giant herb, it’s smooth and glossy — except down low, where the cats and dogs have scratched it up. The big covers we call “banana petals” are actually a kind of leaf protecting rows of the real, tiny flowers. They’re very juicy, so they go to our plant-eaters, the guinea pigs and rabbits.

This is the baby goat born here at Chicken Paradise. So tiny at birth, and now look how big! Little horns are growing, and big sister is always nearby. I had to hide my snacks or I’d be mugged.

Meet Nanoaru

Our newcomer was found wandering in the yard of someone who lives near us — a young, medium-sized chicken all on her own, who looked like she was in trouble, so she was taken in.

She has a condition similar to our Namonakimono (“the nameless one”), and moves just like her, too. So, half as a joke, her name became Nanoaru — “the one with a name.” She’s a bit unwell, but nothing catching.

I took her to the little ones’ room to see what everyone thought. Rex, be nice — she’s still a child. Namiko made a face and Purin got jealous, but surprisingly nobody pecked her. Nanoaru, in her own world, just nibbled some grass.

Around the little ones’ room

Anthony’s feathers are as curly and messy as ever, and somehow he has a son who looks exactly like him. Reg-chan, with a floppy comb, once had fading eyesight that medicine helped — and has turned a bit mean since. Hiyo-chan, your mom in the other room is trying to brood eggs again!

It’s a perfect sunbathing day. Big Cho is sunbathing with her eyes half closed, panting — isn’t that too hot? Cutie is dust bathing in the sun, and Marron has melted flat, legs sticking out at funny angles.

Balloon hens

Nana, Taiyo, one of the nameless twins and Kuromame are all broody, puffed up like balloons. Down below, sweet Glico is sitting too — on an egg that isn’t even hers — and she won’t get angry no matter what I do. And not a balloon, but round anyway: tiny Toast.

Thank you for 300 episodes of Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next one.

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