Originally from Central California's San Joaquin Valley. Just last year, we got our first set of chicks. After setting up an outdoor shelter in the middle of a typhoon, my wife swore at me while swearing that we would never raise chickens again. Five of the seven turned out to be cockerels (two died and three were 'processed') and after an attack by a 'tanuki' (raccoon-dog), we were left with one layer, a Nagoya Kochin. Yet, after our layer started giving us eggs, my wife started warming up to the idea of fresh eggs. Now, we have four (5) 'jiddoko' or 'jidori' (local breed good for both meat and eggs), six (6) Silkie crosses, and three (3) Plymouth Rocks. In addition, our Silkies just hatched seven chicks, six (6) Silkies and two (2) 'jidokko.' We are quickly running out of space and the wife has a very long wish list. Yesterday, our family enjoyed a holiday meal featuring our first home-processed cockerel. Could definitely get used to this. Aside from a few blogs, we haven't been able to find anything like this on websites over here. So glad to have found BackYardChickens.com. Cheers, Miyazaki
Welcome to BYC! I'm a lifetime chicken owner but only found BYC back in April 2010. You are going to enjoy all the expert help and polite opinions! My mother-in-law is Japanese. She held one of my yellow "mutt" chicks and told us that her mother's chicks had been yellow and grew into a white chicken. This would have been just prior to the war. Akiyo was born in 1937. Akiyo tells us she didn't help with the chickens. Her mother cared for the garden and the chickens by herself. (Greatgrandmother had five children. As a mother of three, I think I know why she didn't want the children out there!) Would you have any idea what variety that might have been? If region/area helps any, Akiyo grew up in Nagasaki. I'm not the least bit interested in importing chickens from Japan, BUT if we find that this chicken variety is something available to us here, I might like to raise a few. It would be interesting for my children to have birds just like those from Grandma Akiyo's childhood! Welcome again! Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year!!
