Good morning! It’s me and Marron on another cloudy day.
Say hello to Chako
The chick you called “Wobbly” in the comments isn’t wobbly at all anymore, and today marks one week. Feathers are coming in, too. So here’s the name: Chako, written with the characters for “brown” and “child” — because it’s brown.
Chako’s back has chipmunk-like stripes, the standard look for chicks in Hawaii. Black and lighter brown chicks are common too. Yellow chicks like Marron are very rare — the classic little yellow chick doesn’t exist among Hawaii’s wild chickens.
Chako follows Marron around and learns from him. At first Chako wouldn’t eat at all, but after watching Marron eat so neatly, Chako copied him. Good big brother! Little mischief-maker Chako also keeps pecking at the darker tip of his beak.
Cucumbers and honeydew
A tiny cucumber is forming behind a female flower, and there’s a wilted male flower right next to it. I can’t tell yet if it was pollinated, but I’m hopeful.
Our honeydew melon has flowered too. It’s my first time growing honeydew, so I have no idea what comes next. It really should go into a bigger pot, but I don’t have time right now, so it’s a bit neglected. The flowers keep coming anyway. Looking forward to melon, Chico?
Mint’s second egg
Another duck egg today — the second ever from Mint, our black-and-white duck, and this time the shell is hard. Next to a big brown chicken egg it looks a little taller. It’s slightly greenish, and the shell feels like it’s coated in candle wax, though it’s dry. They should get bigger.
How do I know it’s Mint’s? Press on a duck’s back and she’ll usually squat. Reach under the tail and feel the gap in the pelvic bones: a bird that has laid fits two or three fingers. At her health check Mint’s fit about three; our other duck’s fits only one. So I’m 99% sure. Good job, Mint!
Meet Namiko
Namiko is a wild chicken. A shop that sells chickens had a corner of mystery birds that someone would probably eat, and she was there for a very low price. I felt sorry for them and bought her and one other.
She was completely wild, but I worked hard at it and now she’s fairly friendly. I think her comb is one of our few rose combs (a low, wide comb instead of a tall blade). She has round eyes and blue around her ears. Cute, but actually very fierce. She beats up every newcomer, and when she shows up there’s blood 100% of the time.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next video.