Although Mikey has definitely been interested in the chickens, he always used to give them space. Now that they are big, they don’t worry about him at all, and he sits in the middle of the flock and watches them.
The little ones, Terror and Teufel (Leilani renamed that one again, this time she is Devillinchen, and it seems to stick..) are the size of pigeons and still sufficiently afraid of him when their hanai-mother is not around. Mikey usually just walks away when he hears their anxious squawking and they run the opposite way. With their mother nearby he can get very close and really seems to enjoy birdwatching in a totally peaceful way.
But yesterday was different. The “mother” hen demanded to be put to bed at 5:30. She stepped on top of something high enough that I had no choice but notice and made a lot of noise. I held out my arm and she stepped on and I carried her upstairs to her cage. She squawked for the little ones to follow, and they screamed in protest, but did not move.
I locked her up and gave her food and water. It’s usually much easier to catch the little ones first, but if it’s the other way around a hard boiled egg usually makes it at least possible. Just this time I found a 2-day old can of cat food in the fridge first. I divided it up, in case Mikey still wanted some and carried it downstairs to the frantically peeping birds. They immediately stopped peeping and started wolfing down their favorite food.
All of a sudden I saw Mikey, who had been sitting close by, enjoying the spectacle. His whole demeanor changed. He made himself look as threatening and prowling as he could and stalked the chicks. They noticed it the same moment as I and screamed in terror and ran as fast as they could.
Mikey, very calmly walked over to the old catfood, and started eating happily.
And what does that have to do with Leilani – the star of the blog? Leilani loves the chickens. She can listen to stories like the one above 5 times in a row. She can lay on her back, petting an upside down laying hen on her belly… One of her favorite past times is feeding the chickens… When we see friends with chickens first thing she wants to do is see their chickens… She still tries to train them, for example punishing them for crowing by extended carrying them…
More Chicken News – Americaunas
Our chickens are not pure wild Kauai chickens, they had a few suspect traits, but now we know for sure: They are an Americauna or Easter Egger hybrid, a bearded, egg-laying chickens breed with ear tuffs – which are very prominent on ours by now:
They call them Easter-Eggers because they lay blue eggs. We thought it was suspect that the 3 1/2 months old chickens are as big as fully grown Kauai chickens, and their necks are shorter, together with the bigger (or just fluffier?) head that gives them a different appearance, they are not quite as elongated as Kauai chickens, a bit more plump, drop-shaped, but much prettier than the standard laying chickens.
Most of the hens and 3 of the roosters have the exact coloring of the Hawaiian red jungle fowl, except for bluish or greenish legs – another trait of the Americaunas. And they don’t fly anymore. When something scares them they run-fly, and sometimes they hop-fly into the low branches but they don’t really fly like the Kauai chickens. But maybe they are just too fat…
In any case, that new discovery should make it much easier to find homes for them…
And for my German readers, a poem from my childhood:
In einer Meierei
Da lebte einst ein Huhn,
Das legte, wie die Hühner tun,
An jedem Tag ein Ei
Und kakelte, mirakelte, spektakelte,
Als ob’s ein Wunder sei.
Ein Teich war auch dabei,
Darin ein braver Karpfen saß
der stillvergnügt sein Futter fraß,
Der hörte das Geschrei:
Wie’s kakelte, mirakelte, spektakelte,
Als ob’s ein Wunder sei.
Und dachte sich dabei:
Ich leg im Jahr Millionen Ei
Wenn ich so kakelte, mirakelte, spektakelte –
Was gäb’s für ein Geschrei.
(frei nach Heinrich Seidel, 1842-1906)
Das ist zumindest woran ich mich noch erinnern kann. Ich weiss, das Original ist etwas anders, aber in meiner Familie ging es etwa so)
On a much sader note, Jojo has not come home, and we’ll have a memorial celebration for her today.