Hello from Chicken Paradise — it’s me and Pen-chan on a cloudy day.
I’d heard that animals like goats chew the bark off trees and can kill them, so I tested it with Dolly. I offered her some bark… she didn’t even come when called. Verdict: no bark-eating, at least not this kind.
A chicken health check
Today’s helper is Nuts (she’s angry about it). First, the easiest spot: under the wings. Stretch a wing out and look for bugs or strange dirt. Clean! Next, under the tail — there are usually a few bugs there, which is no problem. Her eyes are bright and clear, not cloudy, and her comb is red and plump. Her nostrils aren’t blocked, and her ears are clean; lift the fluffy feathers to check for built-up wax.
Then the inside of the mouth — muddy, since she’d just been eating dirt. An important step is to smell the mouth: a bad smell can be a sign of illness. She’s fine.
The back of her head is a bit bald. When a rooster mates, he holds the hen by the back of the head with his beak, so the more popular a hen is, the balder she gets. Nuts also sits on eggs a lot, and a hen who wants to hatch chicks (a broody hen) plucks out much of her belly feathers so her bare skin touches the eggs and keeps them warm.
Last, the feet. Dirty, but no big lumps, and the nails aren’t too long. After about a year and a half, old skin builds up on the scales of the legs, so now and then I peel it off. The chickens love eating it, and even older birds run around livelier afterwards. Thank you, Nuts — sorry for making you so cross!
Cucumbers and new chicks
The second cucumber frame isn’t quite finished, but at last I planted the cucumbers anyway: nine seedlings in all. Four chicks also came to us after being found lost. When they play, they jump and flutter — little practice fights. Meet Pepper (yellow comb, probably a rooster), Salt (crisp black and white), Sugar (all black with yellow toe tips) and Spice (black all over).
Meet Poppy
As a chick, Poppy didn’t say “peep peep” — she said “po-po-po-pee!” So: Poppy. There’s a lookalike with the same pretty brown pattern, Poppy 2. She came with a big batch of Easter Eggers I bought all at once, so she isn’t really a people person, and she complained the whole interview. She lays small olive-colored eggs, which are very popular.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise! See you in the next episode.