Rooster

 Rooster gotta go

     The oldest rooster, he stays.  He was hatched out here by one of our lovely hens and then snatched away by me to be raised in a card board box in the house.  Daily I would put him and a few other chicks in a cage in the yard so they could be safe from cats and feel the sun on their heads and the earth under their feet.  That’s how I used to “do it”, raise chicks.  Now I step back and watch how the hens “do it”.  Anyway, that old rooster, The Rooster, he’s at least five years old, so handsome.  He stays.

     Red rooster gotta go.  He was also hatched out by one of the hens but was then raised by her, with other chicks, running wild and free on the farm.  Red will be three years old this summer.  He is a handsome fellow.  Soon after Red's long, fancy tail feather grew in, and his full crow, he was properly schooled by The Rooster.  Red was not a full year old when this happened.  The Rooster let him know, on no uncertain terms, that Red was an “extra”.  This flock of big, fluffy hens belonged to The Rooster and Red could find his place outside of The Rooster’s range.  Red is a rooster so he acted like one, for a minute.  He kicked his feet forward at The Rooster, aiming his big, sharp spikes at the old guy.  They beat wings and squawked and earnestly tried to kill each other.  The Rooster only has one spike left but he still put Red in his place.  It was a fantastic display of normal rooster behavior.  I love observing the animals in their natural habitat.  They were out in the open, free to roam anywhere on mother earth, so I felt it was a fair fight.  I broke things up once with a broom, just because I was still learning about what normal is for a rooster.  I have watched different roosters fight to the death and I didn’t like it.  I see now the conditions were different for that fight.  This fight was fair because of the age difference and because they had both been raised here on this farm.  No one was defending their territory from an unknown, outside invader.  I imagine The Rooster had observed this young Red growing up and knew what would happen long before I happened to notice a conversation between the two of them.  Oh I love watching the animals.  So bottom line, Red learned his place and has been happily a part of the flock ever since.

     The flock has evolved.  Now, Red gotta go.  

      Black chicken hatched out two chicks and raised them up well.  They are both sort of a creamy white.  They are not white.  There are white chickens in our flock and they are from the store.  I would describe them as aggressive, towards other chickens and towards cats.  Over the years there have been people that lived here, started a little flock of chickens, then moved on, leaving the birds.  So our flock does have some store chickens.  I think black chicken was a store chicken and she still hatched some eggs, that turned out to be cream, not white, chicks.  One of these has now declared himself a rooster with his long tail feather and long, draping neck feathers.  He goes.

    There is a two year old rooster that is generally white but has fantastic decorations on his back and wings.  There are many different colors adorning those feathers and I would describe this rooster as magnificent. He stays.  But the black chick that was hatched out last spring, he goes.  The tail feather and neck feathers have become obviously rooster-ish and that has secured his place with the other young cream rooster and Red.  

    There is another rooster that gets to stay.  Hatched out last spring, this is a beautiful black bird that has developed gold and many other colors on his back and neck.  Before there were any rooster signs, this young gawky teen-age chick was hopping around on one foot.  I generally let the chickens fend for themselves and may the strong survive, but this was such a pretty bird, just hatched and raised by a good mama, it seemed reasonable to help it along just a bit.  I was assuming it was a she, a hen that would lay eggs for us. 

     Getting hold of her one day a close inspection revealed what I believed to be some sort of injury with inflammation.  So I fed her butter. Butter from the cows here directly reduces inflammation, and its tasty.  Feeding butter to a chicken is easy unless there are other chickens near by that will take the butter and also attack the injured chicken.  The first time I tried to help this bird I caused her quite a bit of grief, and she missed all the butter.   Over time I learned how to wait until she was mostly alone and then throw the butter right in front of her beak so when another chicken came, she had already eaten it and the other chicken got bored and left.  Just two or three days of this and the chicken was now my best friend, seeking me out in the mornings, giving me those lovely chicken eyes and cooing noises, where's my butter?  Well I do love a tame chicken, she instantly became my special little friend, especially with all those pretty colors.  And her foot healed up, she walks completely with ease now.  I mean he, he walks with ease.  Well after I had fallen in love, the long tail feather grew out and the neck feathers became obviously rooster-ish.  OK.  He stays.  

    I love our flock of chickens.  I love how the birds just handle everything and hatch out chicks then raise them up into healthy, sturdy chickens.  They are so generous.  Here you go human.  Have some yummy eggs to eat, and we will just independently replace ourselves too.  You just sit back and watch.  Close our coop every evening and open it up in the morning and we will take care of the rest.  We love you humans, we are dinosaurs and its nice to live with you.