Good morning from Chicken Paradise — it’s me and Pen-chan, under another blue sky.
Why chickens take dust baths
Here’s Wakame, a rescued hen, dust bathing like crazy. Chickens have lots of feathers and of course never take a bath, so they roll in dust to keep parasites away — the bugs get shaken off along with the dirt. It also calms them and lowers their stress. Mikan joined in, looking blissful.
They don’t bathe just anywhere. Each one picks its own spot and bathes there over and over. When I moved the camera close, they froze — and Taiyo, please stop kicking sand at people! I think for a chicken, a dust bath is the most important thing after food.
Plumeria’s chick and the garden
Plumeria’s chick has grown so much — it’s about as big as my hand now, with a very dirty face. I gave it cucumber, and for some reason it ate only the soft middle and left the rest.
The honeydew melon seeds a friend gave us have sprouted well and already have true leaves; they’ll go in the garden someday. The sweet peas are about 10 cm now, with proper pea tendrils.
A stroll around the flock
Glico eating. Kombu kicking grass and dirt into the food — please don’t! Tiny Flare, Namiko, a grumbling Star, fluffy Kuro, and Purin, who doesn’t mind a bit of dirt in her dinner. Chico, our rooster captain, turning his tail on the interview. Fluffy Orihime — fun fact: those fluffy feathers look warm but apparently aren’t, so it’s best to keep Silkies like her somewhere without big temperature swings. Wakame, a beauty with an unusual pattern, and Taiyo’s fluffy bottom, moving in step with Nana.
Meet Star
Star is a Buff Polish rooster. When Heart was a chick, I went to a store to find him a friend and picked a chick about the same age. Polish chickens are kept for looks rather than eggs, so they’re sold straight run — not sorted into males and females. I hoped for a hen and chose a hen-looking one… and got this fine rooster. As you can see, he has no comb to speak of, which makes it even harder to tell.
Heart turned out to be a rooster too, but since they grew up together, they’re best friends. Star isn’t much of a fighter, but being close to Heart helps: he’s number two among the little ones in the front room. He’s our fresh-faced pretty boy — and terrible at drinking, gulping too much water and spitting it back out.
Thanks for hanging out with the flock today. See you in the next episode!