MANILA, Philippines - Not too long ago, three months to be exact, I met a former classmate in high school who is now a retired architect living with his family in Malolos, Bulacan.
We had a lengthy talk over coffee, reminiscing the days when we were studying at the Torres High School in Tondo, Manila, where we finished our secondary education.
He mentioned to me that he is now raising bantam chickens. These, he said, are domestic fowls whose height is just about half of the local chicken which we call “manok Tagalog.”
“This is a good hobby for a retiree like me. Mahigit nang 50 ang alaga ko ngayon na nag-umpisa sa lima lamang na dumalaga at dalawang tandang. Naibebenta ko rin kapag mga apat na buwan na sila. Ang kumukuha ay yun ding binilihan ko. Try raising some. I am very sure you’ll enjoy it,” he said.
The morning after, I texted my carpenter-friend to build me an “apartment” just like the one he built a year ago for my lovebirds and tiny little finches – five-meter long, three feet in height and complete with all the paraphernalia — nesting places, cans for feeds and for drinking. Finches are Asiatic forest birds almost half the size of a lovebird.
Saturday after breakfast on June 5, I went to the Aranque market along CM Recto Ave. where, in a corner at the ground floor, one can buy domestic fowls — bantam chickens, ducks, turkeys, love birds, finches, parrots; and even dogs and cats of different breeds.
A pair of bantam chicken cost P500. I bought six four-month-old pairs of hens and two rosters..
Now, I can only say that I am enjoying every moment of it – feeding them every morning and afternoon and seeing to it that their drinking cans are always filled with clean and vitamin-filled water. And of course, the most enjoyable part of it is collecting their newly-laid eggs, which is smaller than the size of a regular chicken egg.
And here’s the good news. Middle of last month, two of the layers gave “birth” to 16 tiny little “kids” and the two other “expectant mothers” now sit on their eggs, quietly trying to hatch them into bubbly chicks.
I am crossing my fingers all the chicks that will emerge from the eggs, expectedly this week, are in good health.