6.11.23
Friendships are funny things. Sometimes the most unlikely of people, people who seem polar opposites in all manner of things, become the firmest of friends. Animals too sometimes have the tendency to form the most unusual of bonds. That has sure become the case with our Bonnie dog and an outcast old rooster!
We have a tendency to keep our roosters around for a long time, as long as they are well behaved that is! A grumpy rooster has no place here on our farm as those who know me can readily attest too! Occasionally when we order a new batch of layer chicks, the odd rooster chick will be in the bunch. As he grows up, if we decide to keep him, the residing Master of the Chicken Coop will keep the young upstart firmly in his place, the new young rooster finally being ousted from the hen house to run free around the farmyard with the chickens who are no longer laying. Now and then, a new fancy young fellow will take the place as Master of the Chicken Coop when the previous ruler reaches the end of his reign and passes away, but that happens rarely.
So, it has been interesting lately to watch the turn of events in the chicken world here on the Triple H. A banty hen of ours became awfully broody. Finally getting tired of removing the fussy hen from the nest boxes where our other hens dutifully lay their eggs, I gathered up about seven nice big eggs, found her a good place to nestle on them and left her alone to brood away. She hatched out six fine chicks and was happy as a clam as these surrogate children rapidly grew to be almost twice the size of her. As they all trundled about the cow pasture and farmyard, she kept a strict discipline amongst them. They were all sorts of colours, the eggs being from several different breeds and all fertilized by our big black rooster. Two were hen chicks and the remaining four were rooster chicks. Sadly, while very small, two of the wee ones met their demise leaving us with a single female and three rapidly growing, robust cockerels.
It was not long before the youngsters were in the glory of their youth. The young pullet had taken the colouring of her father, a glossy black while there was great variety in the young males. One is a beautiful mixture of dark reds, black and coppery highlights. Another has lighter and more variegation in his colouring with shimmers of burnished blue shining in the sunlight. The last fellow is creamy white intermingled with brown and golden tan feathers here and there. It was soon apparent that the darker chap was number one on the totem pole with his similarly coloured brother being second and poor creamy chap brought up the rear. In the chicken coop, their father still reigned supreme.
One day, as I had the chicken coop door ajar while inside collecting eggs, the young creamy rooster decided to follow me in. He soon realized his mistake as his father took off after him and gave him a right thrashing! Letting him know at once he was not welcome. Poor fellow!
A few months have passed and everyone in the chicken world seemed to settle into their place. That is until we had a tremendous wind one night which blew open one of the chicken house doors. The following morning, we had chickens everywhere! Not really a great problem as I do like to see chickens running around our farmyard after bugs and grubs and such, Nature’s harrows I call them, but we also have a number of resident Red-Tailed hawks who dearly enjoy chicken dinners! Thus, the layers had to be ushered back to safety into their coop. Along with the old black rooster, the second on the totem pole young rooster ran in with the girls too. I thought nothing of it as I was sure his father would put him in his place. I was wrong! That young upstart gave the old rooster a thorough thrashing, pulling tail feathers out, chasing him all over the coop until he got him cornered and began pecking the daylights out of him! I dashed back into the coop to rescue the bedraggled fellow, deciding to turn him out in the barnyard and let the upstart rooster claim victory over the girls.
Pretty quick it was easy to see the old black rooster, despite being father to the other roosters running around, had truly been delegated to the bottom of the heap. He was not welcome. He no longer heralded the coming dawn with his robust crowing, he ran flat out away from the other males, he had lost his place in the chicken hierarchy. However, he soon found a new calling. He became a people follower!
Before long, as Darrell, the dogs and I headed from the shop to the house, there would be the old rooster, trundling along behind us. Soon, Bonnie and he would start following each other about. Where Bonnie went, the rooster followed and vice versa! Feeling emboldened about being away from the young upstarts, the old fellow soon found his voice again… usually about 4:30 in the morning outside our bedroom window! He sleeps down at the barn but comes trundling up to the house each morning. During the day, Bonnie and her rooster pal can be seen following each other back and forth between the shop and the house. Although the rooster is learning the word “Out!” – meaning get off the deck right now! – he will still occasionally climb the steps to sit or stand beside his girl Bonnie as she lays in the shade.
Sometimes we think Bonnie is being a pest as she follows him about so we will call her away and tell her to leave him alone, but as soon as she comes to us, there is the old rooster, following right behind her! We know it may just be a matter of time before he becomes a dinner for a hawk or eagle, but right now he is back in the prime of his life. His tail feathers are growing back, the glossy black shining with hints of burnished blue and deep purple in the sun. As the young upstarts crow down in the barnyard, he lifts his head and answers them back with a resounding call… all from the safety of our front lawn with his trusty Rottweiler lying beside him.
