Good morning from Chicken Paradise — it’s me and Ponyo, under another blue sky.
Who lives in the broccoli?
Good morning, broccoli. The green caterpillars that were on it have disappeared, but there are lots of new holes in the leaves, so I figured someone must still be living there. I searched and searched — and so far, not a single one. Are the holes just appearing by themselves? I have no idea. I’ll come back and check again tomorrow.
Our first tomato flowers
At last, the moment I’d been waiting for: the tomatoes have flowers! The ones I planted this time are a variety with large fruit, and it’s actually my first time growing them. Dolly ate quite a few of the plants, but the ones over here are shooting up, so let’s keep watching them grow.
Star’s friend Glico loves tomatoes. Go on, Star, go and tell Glico!
Meet Yukinko
Today’s chicken is Yukinko. She’s one of the twenty-something Easter Eggers I bought. Out of all of them, only two were whitish, and Yukinko is one of those two. Her coloring is a funny pattern, a bit like dirty snow, and I thought it was cute, so I named her Yukinko — “snow child.” Funny, since I’ve only seen snow about once in my life.
For some reason, Yukinko pulls out her own tail feathers, so she has no tail all year round. At first I thought she was low in the pecking order and the others were plucking her. But no — she was doing it herself. So there’s nothing I can do about it.
Despite that, she ranks fairly high in the flock. When treats come out, she snatches one first and runs off with it. She isn’t very fond of people, so grab and run: that’s her style.
When we bought our big group of Easter Eggers, Yukinko was the first to start laying. When I found that first small, shockingly blue egg, I went hunting for whoever laid it, feeling the gap between every hen’s pelvic bones (it widens when a hen is laying). She was the only one, so I knew it was her. I don’t know the order after that, but she’ll always stand out as the one who laid first.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise! See you in the next episode.