Tiny news

Last week was rich in tiny news. On its own, each piece is too small to count as "news", but all together they make for a pretty exciting week (from the chickens' perspective). (For those who don't know, chickens love to spend their day just in the same way as every other day - as long as it involves foraging, dust bathing and general pecking around, it's a happy day. No need for big adventures. But any occasion that promises more of their favorite food or more fun things to peck is a welcome diversion from the routine! Hence Tiny news 1.)

Tiny news 1: Special treat!

Chickens got a special treat. It was a big hakusai (Chinese cabbage).

Special treat being devoured.

There is nothing unique about hakusai at this time of the year in Japan. There is plenty of Chinese cabbage everywhere. The special thing for the chickens was that this time it was not a leftover, but a proper, huge, fresh head of Chinese cabbage intended for human consumption. They enjoyed it enormously.

Chinese cabbage: The center of chickens' universe.

Natchan the Goat watching the chickens with envy.
Usually it's the chickens begging for Natchan's grass, this time the situation reversed.
(It could have been sweet revenge, had the chickens noticed Natchan's look. But they didn't.)

Chickens also showed us how to eat the cabbage in the most efficient way possible. Their method requires no cooking/cutting and there are no dishes to wash. Useful information for all the anti-cooks of the world. Dear anti-cooks, this is the anti-recipe for you.
All you need is one strong beak.
※　In case you don't have a beak, teeth will do.

Tiny news 2: Frost

Proper winter finally arrived. Below-zero temperatures at night are more frequent. My fingertips freeze more often. Chickens seem that they don't really care (neither the cold nor my fingers).

The coldest night so far was four days ago when the farm thermometer read -5 °C early in the morning. Here in Tsukuba at a latitude 36°North - about the same as southern Spain - this is The Winter.

From grass to the panels - everything is coated with frost.

So how does the frost-coated clover taste?

Water in the buckets (chickens' drinking water) was frozen in the morning,
and so were the water faucets.  Below-zero temperatures do bring some inconveinences to the farm life.

Tiny news 3: Chickens camping out.

Some chickens frequently fly to Natchan's area.

Trespassers are red-circled.

Trespassers' identity has been confirmed: Christine, Beckie, Aoko, Vashka (hens) and The-Not-The-Boss (rooster). Luckily for them, they stop there, not going further out of the farm.

But occasionally some of the trespassers forget to go home in the evening and decide to camp in Natchan's shed. Without Natchan's permission and without paying for their accomodation.

Vashka trying to camp in the goat's shed which is vacant at night.
(Natchan the Goat uses this shed only during the day.)

The-Not-The-Boss trying to camp in the goat's shed.

This activity is not only illegal (under our farm legal system), it is also dangerous for the chickens. Many chicken enemies are lurking around in the night's shadows.
Any chicken found camping in the goat's shed is returned home immediately.

The-Not-The-Boss was navigated home after a failed camping attempt.

That's it. Your understanding of the current world affairs has improved substantially after reading this report. Congratulations!