I have not mentioned the chicken society we have living around the house. By this I mean literally AROUND the house. We've been feeding the chickens for some time now and Wakana has given them all names. It has been fun watching the dynamics of the flock, who pecks who, who cheats on who, what happens around the feeding ground, Who arrives first, who arrives last, etc.

One of the hens, Wakana named her Mean because of her personality, is completely anti-social. She's a big black hen with a gray face. She has stationed herself on top of our water heater. She spends most of the day up there and all night. We think she is quite old, for a chicken. The feathers around her face are grayer than when she first arrived. When Wakana goes out to feed the chickens Mean flies down and joins in the fun but she puts up with no s--t from anyone including the king rooster! She has faced off against all of them and usually wins.

Mother is a brown and white speckled hen. She isn't a particularly pretty hen. Her tail is all ragged and torn and her colors are rather drab. She has laid a brood of eggs in the old BBQ grill and sits on them all day long. I don't know what she's going to do when they hatch. She'll never get them out of there without our help.

There were two young chicks, siblings, that used to spend a lot of time on the dryer looking into the window at us. We thought they were hens but as time passed they turned out to be roosters. The black one has since wandered off. The white one, Snow, is still around and is growing into a very magnificent white rooster with a great black and white tail. He now has a couple of girlfriends and frequently fights with Father, the other white rooster. He doesn't win but he keeps trying.

Chickens here in Guam can fly much more than the birds back home. They are not so much smaller than chickens back home, just more muscular. Yesterday Mother flew up on to the roof of the house. I have seen them fly up into and out of the jungle behind the house. Of course they do not fly to travel anywhere but it is more flying than I am used to seeing in a chicken.

The roosters here are magnificently colored animals. They come in a variety of colors. I've mentioned the white ones. There are also black roosters with white highlights. There is one of those living on the street but he hasn't tried to invade this territory. Then there are the roosters like Gift and Fox. These are brown to the point of being red. It is a lovely deep color with different shades around their bodies and wings. I really love that color.

It is a riot to watch the roosters fighting. I don't think they actually hurt each other very much. It's more of a stare-down. But they crouch and hump their wings forward. The long silky feathers on the neck stand out making them look twice as big. They leap at each other squawking and squealing. In a flask it's over and the loser slinks away while the winner crows his victory.

Sex is another show here at the Burnham home. The hopeful rooster drops one wing and sidesteps towards his intended. Usually the hen just runs off but if everything is right she won't run and he climbs aboard and the deed is done very quickly with much wing flapping and feathers flying. It takes only a few seconds and then they go back to scratching for bugs and seed in the grass.