It's fascinating to follow the changes in the colors and patterns on the Miyazaki Jidori (or Jidokko, some sort of local heirloom bird, maybe mixed in with other heirloom) birds. These three chicks, the Silky, the Jidori rooster, and the Jidori hen all being together helps get started with comparisons. The Jidori chicks seem to grow a lot faster, and the Jidori rooster seems the most adventurous as in running around far from the mother hen. The Jidori hen was a lot more pro-active about eating the wriggling worms I threw to them.. But the Silkies seem to have preferences too. It might just be an individual taste thing, some birds like worms, some don't.. I read about research on coyote poop that seemed to show a diversity of individual tastes among coyotes.. For better or worse, not many seem to like eating feral cats, the outside cats probably need a natural predator so the wild birds and a lot of other species get a better chance of avoiding extinction. I wonder if this set up with locking the birds up at night would work with coyotes the way it tends to work with the weasels, badgers, and tanuki around here...

#SIlkyHen #JidoriChicks #SilkyChick #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #地鶏雛 #烏骨鶏雛

Silky Hens with Miyazaki Jidori (Heirloom) chicks (and a shy silky chick probably not visible in the photo...
I just notice that the 2-3 egg-brooding hens managed to hatch another Jidori Hen.. Hopefully the new chick won't get crushed with among all the bigger birds at night..

#SilkyHens #BackyardChickens #MiyazakiJidori or JidodKou? #JidoriChicks #宮崎地鶏 #地鶏雛 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏 #地鶏 #地鶏雛

Silky hen with 3 chicks, 1 Jidori rooster, 1 Jidori hen, and 1 Silky. With Silkie it's hard to tell if they are a rooster or a hen until the get big and start practice fighting chest-bumping or awkawrdly start trying to crow. My guess through this first experience with Miyazaki Jidori heirloom birds is that the roosters have a brigher red background with a dark strip foreground from the start and the hens are plainer with only a lighter red background. That's my guess for now.

The plainer Jidori chick (probably a hen right?) was in a box all by her(?)self. I was nervous about leaving her in the box with the weeks-older turkey and silky chick. I tried it for a bit but the older silky was insistent about yanking on the new JiDori's feet as if they were tasty worms. To be save I had the new one in her(?) own box. but she was noisy when I came back for lunch. And it's a lot of work t make sure the heat lamps are working and there's a variety of food in 2 different boxes, and to think about how to time their adventures outside with the colder rainy weather. It's much better to leave all that to a brooding hen.. So I placed her next to the hen that's brooding the Jidori chick (rooster?) and Silky chick.. And it went well (KnockOnWood!!)...
#SilkyHen #JidoriChicks #JidoriChickRooster #JidoriChickHen #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick