every day is a good day
These nearly four month old rooster siblings hang out together much of the day. That’s what young roosters do. Sort of like kids, they are afraid of getting cooties from the hens. Another month or two and their attitude towards the hens will change.
This morning I found them hogging one of the dog carpets. I guess the carpeting is a comfortable spot to hang out on a cool morning.
These happy chicks are three days old today. Ever since they hatched, they have been showered with love and attention 24 hours a day. They are now well bonded with their mother and stay close to her, watching her every move, and mimicking what she does.
Back in March, these roosters had just hatched. Back then, they were little fluff balls, snuggled together under their mother. Now they are more than three months old and well on their way to becoming mature roosters.
As they become teenagers and young adults, roosters like to hang out together. Get too many of them in a group, and they can turn into roving teenage gang bangers. In groups of two to three, they mind their manners and are best friends for now. Single young roosters who don’t have any rooster siblings, may pal around with an adult rooster for company.
Eventually, as they get closer to being a year old, they start to assert themselves and their bffns turn into rivals.
My chickens spend a lot of time in the forest. It’s where there ancestors came from. It’s where the mothers like to take their chicks. Hidden in the brush, they must feel safe from predators. They seem to find lots to eat by scratching through the forest floor.
Below are two month old siblings. Once their mother leaves them, chicks hang out with their siblings. These are bonds which will endure for a long time. The wire fence gives the impression that they are caged. The wire fence is the dog kennel which is open most of the time. The chickens are free to come and go through the kennel. They can also fly out of the kennel if it is closed.
How a Mother Hen Protects Her Chicks : May 4
Just Three Days Old and All This Fun : May 1
Teaching Them to Feed : Apil 29
The two mothers jointly raising the two chicks are getting along pretty well. The chicks have bonded with both mothers and go freely between the two.
See also:
Importance of Love
Summer Musings
More on the Interracial Lesbian Moms
Interracial Lesbian Mothers
Two Mother Hens
This last day of June, the hydrangea are starting to bloom. In Japan, hydrangea bloom during the rainy season in June and July. Growing up I associated their flowers with rain and snails. When I close my eyes and think of hydrangeas, they are always wet with drops of fresh rain water dripping off them. Here, hydrangea bloom during the dry season from July through August. They are rarely wet and in this land of no snails, you never see a snail sliding across a wet hydrangea leaf.
South of Tokyo in Kamakura you’ll find Meigetsu-in, a Zen temple founded in 1383 also known as the Hydrangea Temple 紫陽花寺 because of its many hydrangeas. There are some 2,500 hydrangea on the temple grounds with 80 to 90 percent of them an old variety known as Princess Hydrangea. On busy days when the hydrangea are in bloom, the line of visitors waiting to get into the temple grounds can stretch for a third of a mile.
There are no lines here to see the hydrangea. Only a handful of people have ever seen the hydrangea bloom at A Man and His Hoe®. Actually, more chickens than people have seen them in bloom, though this morning, the chickens are more interested in pecking through the duckweed I pulled out of the pond for them. Maybe they will pause and admire the hydrangea when they are in full bloom and they have had their fill of duckweed, tadpoles, and waterbugs.
