This happened about a week after I bought three dyed chicks.
Their necks were growing longer and longer, so I could see they were progressing from chicks into chickens.
I’d heard they were all roosters, but mine each had their own quirks.
With three of them, it was hard to get them to stay put in one place, and before I knew it, one was running around the earthen floor while another was pecking at the glass door. The last one was pretty quiet and docile—it stood by my side, tweeting and chirping.
I came up with some names for them: The blue-headed one who was running around was Pochi, the red one who liked to peck things was Tama, and the green one who liked to follow me around was Yuma. Their paint would eventually wear off, but it was easy to tell them apart from their behavior.
Pochi and Tama were the active type—they ran off outside as soon as I opened the door.
Unusually for March, it was snowing today, and the other side of the glass door looked all white.
“It’s cold out. Stay inside, okay?” I opened the glass door. However, Pochi and Tama immediately went running outside.
“Aaaah! Pochi, Tama, are you okay?!”
Pochi and Tama had tripped over the snow and fallen headfirst. The snow was only a thin layer, so when I picked them up, they were covered in mud. They both had a bit of a grumpy expression.
“See, I told you not to go outside,” I chided them and chuckled. It’s a lot of fun watching over them, and they’re adorable too.
It looked like I would have to stay inside for the day.
I filled a washbasin with water, adjusted the temperature, and took them to the earthen-floor room to clean them.
“They’ve gotten pretty big already, so maybe I can give them baths soon. It’ll be easier if we can get in the bath together,” I said as I washed them. This paint is pretty hard to get off... Do I need to use soap? Eh, it’s fine for now.
I dried them off with a towel. They seemed to enjoy that. Yup, I can see it on your faces. Let’s keep it that way.
I took them to the living room and put them under the kotatsu to warm them up. They’ll just get out if it’s too hot, plus they seem to dislike getting dirty and always go to the earthen floor to poo. Pretty clever chicks, they are. That’s a big help for me too, since I don’t know anything about raising chickens.
Only Yuma seemed to not be very good at that—she didn’t manage to make it this time either. I saw her looking a bit embarrassed, so I wiped her and held her up.
“Yuma’s a good girl. It’s okay.”
She chirped happily. So cute.
I felt I was being looked at. Turning back to Pochi and Tama, I saw that they were staring at me, though they brushed me off when our eyes met. These two are pretty similar, and not in a good way. They’re kind of cold... Well, they’re still cute.
I was still feeding them chick feed, though recently, they’d started eating leafy vegetables too.
“It’s pretty cold tonight...”
By nightfall, the snow had already stopped. It’s spring, so it’ll probably melt soon. For some reason, it was actually quite warm when it snowed, but it got much colder after it stopped snowing. What’s the deal with snow?
“Bath time, I guess.”
Yuma came over to me while I was getting ready to take a bath. Did something catch her eye?
“Do you want to get in the bath with me, Yuma?” I asked, but she took off. Guess not. I started running the bath, but then she came back with Pochi and Tama in tow.
“Hm? You guys want to get in too? It’s pretty hot, though.”
I figured it would be all right if I left some cold water in the washbasin just in case. I put the three of them with me into the bath.
“Just a sec.”
I washed my body, held them, and got into the bathtub just to check. Immediately, they began to cry out and flap around. Crap, I thought it was cool enough, but it looks like it was still too hot for them.
✦ ✦ ✦
“H-Hold on!” I tried to put them in the washbasin, but they just wouldn’t stay still.
“Aaaah!”
And then, one of them fell into the bathtub.
“Waaaahh?!”
I put one of them in the washbasin, and another one fell into the bathtub. I picked up the two that were still in the bathtub, hastily put them in the washbasin, and then successively added hot and cold water to adjust the temperature. By the time the chicks had finally calmed down, I was already pretty exhausted.
“Th-That was close...” You shouldn’t panic like that when you fall into hot water. I know it must have been scary for you guys, but you could have drowned. I washed my face to help me calm down.
“Pochi, Tama, Yuma, sorry...”
After getting out of the bath and wiping them, Pochi and Tama had seemingly gone back to their usual selves—they went running off to the earthen-floor room. Their lizard-like tails were standing on end. I really messed up there. Yuma snuggled up to me after I wiped her. Yuma was the only one who didn’t fall into the bathtub. I’m glad they were all okay.
Back in the living room, I apologized to Pochi and Tama. It really was a terrible idea to try to put them in the bathtub. I gave them some water and candy, which they greedily wolfed down. Afterward, Pochi and Tama pecked me a ton, but I just put up with it. That hurts. I’m really sorry.
The next day, as usual, Pochi was running around, and Tama was pecking at stuff. Good to see everything’s back to normal. Yuma was also adorably following me around and chirping.
After the previous night, I thought that I’d had enough of trying to take them into the bath, but for some reason, Yuma started to bathe with me. Looks like Yuma enjoys bathing, though I’m not sure if what she likes is cleanliness or just spending time with me. Pochi and Tama, on the other hand, always stayed away from the bathroom.
Sometimes, I still tried inviting them to bathe with me, thinking they’d grown big enough that it wouldn’t be a problem, but they always refused. Though I guess chickens are not supposed to bathe in the first place. Sometimes they came home so dirty that I got the urge to force them to take a bath, but I knew from experience that it was a bad idea, so I endured it.
They say birds are forgetful, but it’s looking like they have a better memory than I do.
We had these, shall we say, accidents every now and then, but I was living pretty peacefully.