Breadfruit from a friend
A friend gave me some breadfruit that had gone a bit too ripe, so I brought it for the chickens. I was told it was rotten, but it didn’t seem so to me. The inside was soft, almost creamy, and smelled gently sweet, though normal breadfruit isn’t sweet at all — it’s more like a potato. Cutting it open was a battle; I thought my knife might snap. Plants are tough!
Whenever I bring out a new snack there’s a long, suspicious silence, but soon everyone was eating. Cinnamon, who is usually a bit bald, has a full set of feathers right now. Charles was picking on Kotaro, and an earwig crawled out of the fruit, which surprised me.
Grey’s secret son
I want to introduce Grey’s last son. He was hatched by a hen that isn’t one of ours, far out beyond the farm, which is why his pattern is so unusual. He hid so well that until recently I didn’t even know he existed. I just noticed a young bird who looked like Grey’s child, followed him, and scooped him up where he was sleeping. His mother is still nowhere to be found. I think he’s a boy, but I’m not completely sure yet.
A noni experiment
Since bird flu arrived in Hawaii, I panicked, calmed down, and have been thinking about what else I can do. Farmer friends and I have been sharing information, and I’ve been gathering it up and passing it along. One idea that came up was noni, a pungent Hawaiian fruit that is known as a superfood in Japan too. There are all kinds of claims about it — some studied, some not, some real and some exaggerated — including that it might work against viruses.
That tip reached me late last night, so this morning I asked a friend who’s up at 5 a.m. if they knew where noni grows. Their aunt has a tree, so off I went to pick some. Noni turns from green to white to see-through, and when it starts to stink, it’s ripe. People say it smells like rotten cheese; to me it’s more like a strong cheese. Where I picked it, wild chickens and wild pigs were gobbling it up. I let the cats have a sniff: one ran away, and the others just turned away.
And our chickens? They ate it! Some of the roosters were surprisingly interested, Hare-chan was eating the whole lot, and Hachimitsu had some too. Andre and Kuromame were more scared of me than of the fruit. Verdict: they don’t devour it, but they will eat it, so maybe I’ll offer it when they’re hungry.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you next time!