Hello from Miyazaki, Japan.

[Knock Kneed Hen]

from San Diego, CA. We'd love to see some pics of your Japanese breeds. It's always fun to see something different. Also, when you get a chance, of your set-up, yard, family...

Okay, I think it would be interesting!!!! Nice meeting you!

 

[Miyazaki]

Thanks everybody.

I'm back in the US for about three weeks, so I'm missing out on all of the fun involved in watching the brood grow.
We just had seven hatch last week and it looked like they are all doing fine when I left; the wife and kids are on chicken-duty while I'm away.

I'll work on putting up some photos over the next week or so (something I should be able to do since I've got my Mac with me).

As for the questions about the kind of birds that would have been around Nagazaki pre-war, I'll ask around as soon as I get back.

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[chics in the sun]

Welcome to BYC!! Your post brought back fond memories for me. I had my first chickens with my family while we lived in Tokuyama, Japan as a child. We had a small flock of Japanesse Bantams, but I don't know what type. I also had three little quail. I had so much fun with them as a kid, when I moved to my current house and had a nice big yard I got back into chickens, partly for my son to have a similar experience. We eventually lost ours to the dogs, too, but it was such a great experience while it lasted. I love Japan, and am looking forward to going back to visit someday. Enjoy your new chickens!

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Welcome to BYC from Canada!

 

[Miyazaki]

Okay folks... been back in Japan a week already and hit the ground running. The reason I didn't post much while I was in the US involved a trip to the ER early New Year's Day (not bird related). Fortunately, during the visit stateside, there was time to stop by the local feed store and pick up a few supplies for the coop. Backyard chicken keeping culture here is nowhere as current as in the US, but there is definitely a colorful history.

A popular breed in Japan, for a number of years, was the chabo. Apparently the birds are pretty good at finding their own food so aren't so hard to keep. When I did manage to talk with some local folks about the birds that were around the yards maybe 50 to 60 years ago, people definitely remember them. In fact, eggs and poultry were delicacies until only a generation or two ago. When I asked about how people used to process their birds, they mentioned that it was such a rare occasion that few seemed to remember clearly. My mother-in-law said something that can be translated as, "We would have chicken once a year (for New Year's) or maybe twice, but only when a bird met an untimely death." No one I spoke with seemed to remember how to eviscerate foul; this is where Youtube really comes in helpful.

Now, here we are in 2011, welcoming the start of the year in Miyazaki with the news that the avian or bird flu has just hit the area. We really don't want to have to cull our flock (mainly because processing our 20 or so birds would take up most of the day); though we've got the freezer space, we'd rather have fresh eggs. The price of eggs was already expected to rise. If we do have to start over again, we will be more prepared than we were for our first batch of chicks. My wife just said that over 400,000 (yes, that's close to half a million) birds are being culled. Just checked the online news and, yes, apparently the Ground Self-Defense Force (their army) was even called in to help. We fall just outside the ten mile radius withing which the government is mandating a mandatory cull to contain spread of the virus. We are kind of holding our breath. Either way, we plan on making the best of the situation.

This coming weeking, we should have time to take a few decent photos of our flock to post on this site. Our coops are nothing to brag about, our garden is quite small and hardly beautiful (especially this season), but we sure have grown to enjoy keeping our backyard flock. And we are still learning a lot.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

I do hope you are spared by the cull!

As for keeping the flock healthy, there are several post threads about good treats for birds. I like using yogurt mixed with chick feed when one of our birds act as though they feel bad. Eggs broken outside can be cooked and fed back to the birds also. (When it looks like some dirty bird foot broke the egg and got it filthy, I am NOT eating that!) Cooking should kill any germs and adding garlic will prevent the chickens from getting a taste for plain egg.

The chickens called chabo: doesn't chabo mean "tiny" or "small"? A friend called her toy poodle "Chibi" or something very close to that. Mother in Law said it was like slang for "teeny". Of course it's been like 15 years since this conversation, so I could be plain wrong, lol.

My point is that if chabo means small, it could be the Japanese equilviant of American farmers calling all small stature chickens bantams. The more you get to question the over 70 years old folks, the more you can discover. Many aspects of farm work here are considered not worth writing down and I have the feeling that it is similar in Japan.

Good luck with everything!

 

[Desert Rooster]

Hello

from Hesperia, Ca and

 

[Wild Trapper]

from Ohio

 

[noriko]

from Pa and I'm originally from Yokohama, Japan. Anyway, I saw a news about Avian Flu on Japanese News site. It's still spreading out with no control. I'm always worried about Avian Flu with my birds too. Good luck with everything. Noriko.

 

[ThePigeonKid]