Hello! Blue sky, green banana leaves, and the bananas themselves have turned yellow. The tall grass makes perfect shade, and the chickens are lined up in it all the way to the back. A few minutes later, for some reason, a second hello: I’d been napping in a reclining chair someone gave us, until an ant bit my fingertip.
Salad for Fifi
Next, a bargain salad for Fifi the goose. I wanted you to hear the crunching, but it’s mostly honking! Fifi loves lettuce but not carrots. Then a big hen marched up and the chickens slowly gathered. Fifi is about five times their size, yet the fearless old hens win. Frankie, please don’t stand on the food!
Happa has quite a repertoire of impressions, and loves fruit: Happa chews an apple, drinks just the juice and drops the rest. So funny!
New Easter Eggers
Our first store-bought hens are five or six now and laying fewer eggs, and colorful eggs are popular, so three young Easter Eggers joined us. In June 2024 they were the last three left unsold. An Easter Egger is a cross of different breeds, so shape, color, size and even egg color vary, like Easter eggs. Cinnamon, a grown-up Easter Egger, is bald as usual, but healthy.
Meet Vicky
Vicky hatched the same day as a smaller hen and was only a little bigger at first, but the gap kept growing. Roosters have sharp neck feathers; Vicky’s are rounded and her shape is a hen’s, so she’s probably mixed with a large breed. She’s already as big as a grown wild hen. Boy or girl, healthy is what counts!
Little tortoises
The baby tortoises are growing ve-e-ery slowly. The cats never touch them, right, Madara? They’re the only quiet creatures on the farm. We brought them as a weeding crew… in how many years?
A papaya memory
Everyone sharing a papaya reminds me of something. When I was 14, I got four hens from a gamecock farm as friends for Pen-chan. The farmer brought a papaya and said birds that eat one papaya together will get along, so I took home the ones who ate with Pen-chan. Two of them were Okki-chan and Brownie.
It’s been almost six years since I started living with chickens. They’ve taught me so much. Only one thing is hard: the goodbyes. Injury, illness, old age… once we meet, a goodbye always comes, and each time I feel how much I still lack. I want to keep learning, so everyone’s time here can be a little longer. “Being alive is a miracle, you know.” Just kidding, Flute! I hope I see everyone again tomorrow.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you in the next episode!