Happy Birthday Dear Chickens!

Our chickens celebrated their 5th birthday last week!

Justin the Rooster turned five.

5 years ago - on April 28, 2015 -  33 newborn chickens arrived to the farm.

Little chickens 5 years ago.
One of them is future Justin the Rooster. 

But no baby chicken is complete without the sweet chirping and the clumsy jumping. Here are two short videos from that era: 

Chickens' appetite:

Chickens in the nursery:

Baby chickens grew up and accomplished a stellar career as free-range, free-spirited Egg Layers, each laying hundreds of superb quality eggs before they retired in the fall 2017. (Except for the roosters. They never worked a day in their life.)

Chickens working hard in their offices in 2016.
A daily work shift takes about ten minutes.
The rest is free time.

A peek into the chicken's office from the back door.
(Nest boxes can be opened from the back, making it easier to collect eggs.)
 (2016)

The result of our chickens' hard work.

Free time.

Sadly, only three chickens made it to their 5th birthday: a rooster and two hens.
By now the two hens are very old ladies, fast approaching their natural end... 

Two old ladies: Liliko (left) and Mabuko (right).
May 2020

Two old ladies sleep most of the time. They still drink some water but refuse to eat. They are given the best care an amateur human (Suu) can provide. 

By the way, being able to live their natural lifespan as a commercial chicken is extremely rare. It's like winning a life lottery. 99.9% of the 1.4 billion egg laying hens in Japan die before they are 1.5 - 2 years old. (And I don't even mention the conditions in which they spend those 2 years). Our chickens are very lucky to live this long. 

Now, however, there is only the rooster enjoying this vast greenery. 

Justin the Rooster, pondering over the meaning of life.

With chicken population shrinking, Chickens' Playground is now literary turning into Goats' Playground.

Goats' Playground, with 3 goats and dramatic sky.

We are happy for the goats, but it still feels a little lonely. There's enough space for both! 

We are seriously thinking of bringing in a new batch of chickens. But we need fo fix some issues first,  especially the sparrow curse. There can be no chickens until we find a way how to prevent hordes of sparrows from coming for free meals and poop everywhere.  
None of the approaches that we tried so far -  feed trays with lids, entrance curtain, invisible strings outside of the entrance...  - nothing has worked permanently. 
We realized that figuring this out will take both time and money. We are now working on it.

In the meantime, Happy Birthday Chickens! It's been a long journey and you've been amazing. Here is Justin the Rooster performing his Birthday Song a few days ago. (It's in fact very similar to his everyday morning song, and brunch and lunch and afternoon tea song):

Justin the Rooster yelling "Happy Birthday" to the world.