Grace has been laying lots of eggs when we’ve been away xD

(Yes we had a friend check on her a few times too, and we have a camera feed of the coop too)
#BackyardChickens #ChickensOfMastodon

More of the JiDokKo, JIdori, local heirloom birds from this area, probably fighting birds.. more of them are sleeping up in the tree.. At first it was only one, a bird hatched from an egg from birds that a high school student hatched from eggs he got from a supermarket. One of the local chains has a store that offers local MIyazaki JiDokKo eggs. The Miyazaki JiDokKo brand can only be applied to birds and eggs that are raised according to certain standards for area and time AND are the genetic result of two crosses with JiDokKo birds. It's confusing until you see a chart of the crosses and read the other requirements a couple times.. The JidokKo are crossed with an Western Heirloom breed and another Kyushu breed (Kyushu Road !?!九州ロード) .. There are requirements that birds carry a certain percentage of native genes in order to classified as JiDori or something.. I may have seen something about the Nagoya Kochin birds along these lines too..

Anyway I'm hoping a lot of birds can survive night up in the tree.. It would be a step toward raising birds like Masanobu Fukuoka by just letting the have the run of an orchard somewhere. What mix of trees would augment their food all year round, I'm thinking mulberries and Kurogane holly and oaks for acorns.. Fruits that they can eat by themselves would be the best, acorns probably need to be smashed for them (but not for Turkesy!?!?) and maybe leeched too... I imagine they'll like loquats.. I wonder if they can eat cumquats on thier own? I have to halve and stake the big pomelo fruits for them but this week I'll test them with ripe cumquat KinKan fruits..
#JiDokKO #JiDori #SilkyChickens #BackyardChickens #じどっこ #地鶏 #烏骨鶏
Chabo Houdini wants to sleep up on this wall. The last three night I picked him off the wall by a citrus tree and put him in a box I can screen off from predators for the night.. Tonight he found a spot on the wall that is usually out of my sight.. But still within a sight line from the train tracks, I've seen Tanuki Raccon dogs along those tracks twice... I'm not sure how well Tanuki, weasels, martins, badgers and whatnot can see but the bird probably smells nice to predators too... He's a tough little fighter with other roosters but very docile when I pick him up.. just trembles and maybe clucks a little every once in a while.. It's surprising how resigned to their fate the chickens seem to be once they are under control.. It feels like we should be kinder to them, like we broke some sort of covenant by cooping them in animal factories and treating them like inert meat from egg to table.. They started out their relationship with people as religious companions, letting us know of the first light, it was only later they came to be valued for eggs and meat.. (Andrew Lawler _Why Did the Chicken Cross the World_).. It's nice having the bird in the yard. Old ladies like to watch them while sitting in the window drinking tea (the ladies not the birds, the birds mill around at our feet while we cast hemp seed to gather them to us).. School kids stop by while walking home to gawk at the birds: Moms and little boys enjoy a little sense of wonder with liviing beings before and after watching trains race by... Hopefully the little kids will learn to attend to life more than machines...
#Chabo #ChaboHoudini #チャボ #BackYardChickens

They had already sold out of the cream leg bars we wanted. They were also out of Olive Eggers. Booo.

We still somehow walked out with black laced gold wyandotte, blue laced red wyandotte and splash laced red wyandotte.

We might have a problem.

#BackyardChickens #MacJohnsonFarm #ChickDays #ChickenMath

This JiDokKo rooster (I guess) has the most striking coloring.. maybe I can exchange him for the Silky Rooster I provided for the hens at the place I got the JiDokKo eggs. The old farmer might prefer to have pure JiDokKo eggs and I probably have some mixed eggs about ot hatch this week anyway... If another Via Campesina poultry part comes together next week I can provide the biggest (plainer) JiDokKo rooster and the adult Silky Rooster now fertilizing JiDoKKo hens at the farmer's market.... with a few weeks to work out the logistics it should go fine, especially after this.past weekend's experience...

#JidokKo #BackyardChickens #JiDori #地鶏

usable eggs from my baby girl so far

https://sh.itjust.works/post/55798811

I think the speckled (?) Hens are Plymouth Rock chickens...
They look huge compared to.my "bantam" Silky "black meat" chickens.. After a feast of soup and BBQ worked up.by 2 guys from the countryside of the Phillipines I want to raise some big birds.. The Silkies can be like pets, companions, incubators and the other breeds can serve as multinational community building feasts...

#BackyardChickens #PlymouthRockChickens #ChickenBreeds ? #ChickenTypes

Shout out to local fellow @billinkc for taking time out of his morning to give us some chick supplies so we don’t have to give Jeff Bozo more money while our brooder plate is inop. Mastodon folks rock!

#MacJohnsonFarm #ChickDays #BackyardChickens