Rooster Daze

I will say up front that my only experience with Roosters up North was with this one....

Roosters are tough birds and they really don’t give a crap.Threaten their harem…….

and you will feel the beak or claws of this creature. I have also learned that throwing pots, brooms or a handy shoe does not deter them from the retched cock-a-doodle-doing in the morning.

My first close encounter with this pit bull of birds came very innocently and so very unexpectedly. I was shopping at the local country mall (flea market) and came across a vendor who was selling “chicks” cute little cuddly things, the size of those marshmallow peep candies-awe.

I bought two, I think I paid $20.00. Being a Yankee, I had no clue what I was doing. Maybe I wanted to start a farm? Well I took the new family members home and built a little area in the back yard to raise these chicks. The early days raising these chicks were fun, I was wondering what I would need to start a little chicken ranch, I bet Frank Purdue........

..... of “it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” fame started with a single chicken. Come to think of it what did Frank buy first. The chicken or the egg?

Anyway,so here I am raising these birds into what I think will be nice, plump chicken hens – How wrong I was. I was watching the growth of these birds and it seemed odd, they did not look like chickens at all, their colors were very bright and they looked a little masculine to me. Oh well I thought, maybe it’s just a stage. 

I found out what I really had. I remember this day distinctly, we have had the birds for sometime now and they have grown well. It was about 3:00am when my world would never be the same. 

COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOOOOO X 56 ..non-stop. The man at the flea market sold me roosters not hens. He must have seen me coming and said “I’ll get this damn Yankee” He sure did, what a nightmare for weeks to come.

You see, The rooster is often portrayed as crowing at the break of dawn and will almost always start crowing before 4 months of age. He can often be seen sitting on fence posts or other objects, where he crows to proclaim his territory. However, this idea is more romantic than real, as a rooster can and will crow at any time of the day. Some roosters are especially vociferous, crowing almost constantly, while others only crow a few times a day. 

These differences are dependent both upon the rooster's breed and individual personality. He has several other calls as well, and can cluck, similar to the hen. Roosters will occasionally make a patterned series of clucks to attract hens to a source of food, the same way a mother hen does for her chicks.

What a time with these creatures: 

• They escaped my makeshift pen everyday
• They would wander down the street to neighbors houses
• I had to go get them every day as they would not stay on my property (Try herding roosters!) 
• Area dogs would come by just to chase these birds on top of our car, mailbox, roof etc
• They were very bold and came after me if i tried to chase them away from the door
• They crapped all over our back porch

 My cute little chicks.........

 .......grew to be ornery, take no crap Roosters. This one below looks like it might be saying "Hey! You talkin to me?" 

No matter what you do, you can’t quiet a rooster:

Throwing random household items at them (STATEMENT FOR PETA: not to hit them, just to scare them)  did not work,

I thought of  wearing ear muffs to bed, so I would not get up at 3:00am  every morning. I liked the idea but was thinking that ear muffs were not very manly like, but would prefer these:

I though of even inviting the roosters in the house while we had chicken, the thought was sort of physiological, you know, keep on cock-a-doodle-doing and this just might be you here on the plate. 

Over time I did get used to the morning Rooster crows, kind of like when you are living by railroad tracks, after awhile, you don't hear the train. I did not need ear protection anymore.

But, just like many things in life, as soon as you get used to something........

One day coming home from work I did not see any sign of the two roosters..I did notice in the backyard this....

My first though was "Damn, who plucked my roosters?" I never saw them again..local folks have since told me that they probably were taken by "mother nature" A rainstorm ? wind?..I asked in truly Yankee fashion...um no.....how about...

Red-tailed Hawks have varied diets, and although they may opportunistically hunt free-range poultry, it is not a primary source of food.


Well, I gave it a shot and failed as a chicken or shall I say Rooster farmer. Like everything else down here, it was a lesson for me. 


Don't count on your Hens before they hatch, they just may be Roosters!

Here comes the rooster..........................