Blue Tamago

So I mentioned earlier that we bought 4 chicks in total, well the other two are white leghorns. This wasn't a breeder, but she gets the chicks from a hatchery and she keeps them in her backyard in rather cramped conditions.  To me there were too many birds in one pen and she is just selling birds to make a profit. She doesn't seem like the type to really care for all those birds. Needless to say, we will not be buying from her again. We did take two little leghorns, just to save them from the pen. She did say that they were off heat, but they were about 4-5 weeks old and they are bigger than the Marans.

As if we weren't busy enough, on the weekend we bought a pair of chicks, actually we ended up buying 4 chicks altogether >.< but the other two were from a different "breeder". More on that later. We bought these French Maran girls from a lovely breeder out in Skye. They were around 4 weeks old and hatched under a silkie hen. Chicks reared by a hen tend to be smaller than chicks reared under a heat lamp. The light from the lamp allows them to eat 24 hours a day, whereas with a hen they sleep throughout the night. Being only 4 weeks old, they still require heat, so out came the heat mat and the mini shelf from Kmart.  The heat mat is placed on top of the shelf and a piece of old clothing on top of that. The heat mat is not regulated, but the wattage on that mat means that it doesn't get hotter than 37 degrees. The cloth on top helps to keep the heat in and also serves as a warm (not hot!) place to sit on. The brooder this time is a cardboard ...

We finally left Takayama and took the long train ride into Tokyo. It was a 3.5 hour ride and we couldn't resist picking up some eki-ben at the stations. Most stations will sell bento for you to eat on the train and most places will sell bentos that have the regional specialty.By the way, if you want to know, eki-ben literally translates to station bento. Up above, I bought the sarubobo eki-ben, sarubobo being the Takayama mascot/protector. Truthfully, I bought this because of the container, it's so cute! Upon peeling off the cardboard cover... You get a little phone charm of a sarubobo! Finally at the food layer...   At the station they display the contents of each eki-ben, but I just wanted the container. This one has beef (Hida I think), shredded egg omelet, an umeboshi plum and some fried fish cake sitting on top of a bed of rice. The sides had a prawn, half an egg, some pickles, some cut vegetables and some seaweed. This was definitely a k...

Aaah! Time flies and it's been so hectic recently. Still trying to get the old house ready for rental and bring all the bits and pieces still left there up to the new house. Plus trying to get the new house into some sort of livable state. Hmmm...looks like chickens DO have some sort of teeth like projections at the back of their beak? Speaking of beaks, Buffy managed to break the tip off his beak. Probably from fighting through the fence with Penguin. Intact beak Broken tip At least it was just the tip of the beak and nothing further back. This tip should grow back in time. I think of beaks like a fingernail, with your nail bed and the hard nail growing out of it. Buffy broke the nail, but I've heard of chickens breaking the beak further back and it leads to bleeding and potential infection. Buffy has a large amount of scabs on his wattles and comb. He doesn't get that he will always lose a fight with Penguin and Penguin has no wattles ad his comb is a lot...

We started our morning off with the famous morning markets in Takayama. There are two markets, one located in a square in front of Takayama Jinya (hence called Jinya-mae market) and the other along the river bank of the Miyagawa river.  We visited the Jinya-mae market first. We were confronted with a handful of stalls, mainly selling local produce such as vegetables and local arts and crafts. We bought some zori, traditional cloth sandals for 1000 yen. It was handmade by a very old looking lady. Funny thing, the sandals don't really fit properly...anyway, happy to support her in her endeavours. We also bought some sarubobo amulets from her. These are figurines that you will see everywhere in Takayama.  They are supposed to be a protective amulet for children. Have to say, ours looked very handmade in comparison to what you could get in the shops. Beware though, many of the items in the shops are now made in China. At least from this market, we know it is made in Japan! ...