Good morning from Chicken Paradise Hawaii! It’s windy today, and the banana leaves are rustling. Hanabi and Shimako, two of our cats, are lounging with chicks right below them. Our farm cats make cute faces at the chicks but never attack them.
We try to bring you bright, happy stories on this channel, but today’s includes something a little sad.
Meet Curry and Udon
Udon has been hand-raised since the moment he hatched. His fluff has turned into real feathers, and he’s becoming a lovely orange rooster. Chicks are flock animals and usually get lonely alone, but Udon was oddly fine by himself. Then Curry became his friend, and now the two are always together.
Curry is Tomoko’s son. Tomoko was a loving mother who even carried her chicks on her back, but she was weak in fights and couldn’t get a good spot while Karaage and Sona were raising chicks at the same time. When her chicks were about a month old (most hens raise them to about two months), she brought them right up to us, calling in an unusual way, as if to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore.”
The chicks had puffed-up feathers and odd-looking eyes, and Tomoko herself was losing feathers. We took the chicks in. They had colds and bad feather mites, so we sprayed them even though it was risky, fed them nutritious food and kept them warm under a lamp. In the end, only Curry survived. We’re truly sorry, Tomoko. Curry’s comb looks just like his mother’s.
Chickens and stress
Tomoko’s neck feathers haven’t grown back yet, but she’s eating, and Shiratama keeps her company. Stressed chickens can lose feathers and appetite, much like people. The big brown youngster sharing Curry and Udon’s cage at night is Karaage’s daughter. She was bullied in the big cage and stopped eating at first, but cheerful Udon helped, and now she eats well. She’s big and beautiful, so bullying isn’t only about being small. Being different seems to matter.
Grey is retired. Proud roosters who drop from the top of the order often can’t settle lower down. He loves people, so he lives apart and enjoys a peaceful retirement. Othello White suddenly couldn’t stand during a fight with Rex, with no injury. After about a week resting in a dark, snug cage, he was standing again. His ragged comb comes from daily spats with Kirin through the cage wire.
New names
Two of the young birds now have names: the whitish-brown one, Sona’s chick, is Milk Tea, and the blue-grey one, with a face just like her mom Karaage, is Ash.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you next time.