We, too, had an...aggressive... rooster when we were raising chickens on a very small scale, for the eggs, for their company, and their definite lawn decoration qualities. We, too, got baby chicks through the mail, causing our then-absolutely reliable post office to call early (!) in the morning to ask us to come pick up a peeping package. We, too, asked for hens only and got the occasional rooster, which for years would be a singleton, all very agreeable. Until we inadvertently raised the Mean and Terrible. A proudly cocky glorious Rhode Island Red, we handled him with exquisite care, carried sturdy sticks to fend him off, and were lucky enough to be able to tend the chicken pen chores when all were out foraging on their own. We were away frequently and REALLY LUCKILY had a string of wonderful house sitters who were warned about the Mean and Terrible, and who dodged him successfully. Until... the wife of a photographer friend, being carried away by the bliss of gathering eggs from the hen house, got nailed in the calf. The wound became badly infected, a BIG concern as she was a dancer, a choreographer, and we were appalled that the Mean and Terrible could end her then-nascent career. It took ages, but finally all was healed, she went on to have a very successful career, and the Mean and Terrible had been ... eliminated. Our hens, in various small flocks, delighted us for forty-odd years, until we left that property 3 years ago, but after the Mean and Terrible, we never raised another rooster.
Apparently we've lived parallel poultry lives, Kippy, with the exception of the horrible injury. Hoo boy, I'm glad that ended well eventually. 😬
In writing today's piece, I was trying to remember the names of some of our other roosters: Punk Rocker, Big Red... I didn't get very far, and it's possible that's because we learned our lesson for good after a couple more. I'm sorry to say I've forgotten now!
I sometimes miss having chickens (though not the responsibility), and I definitely miss having a ready source of fresh eggs. I imagine you feel the same!
Ha! We came a long way in our 13 years at the farm. I feel certain we have more pictures tucked away in some box or other, but I was happy to be able to put my hands on these for now. Good to see you here, Lindsay.
My 8-year old grandson is absolutely enamored with chickens... because of their still-obvious relationship to dinosaurs. A voracious reader, he'll get a kick out of this essay, which we'll read just after today's work session on the dinosaur habitat he's creating in the garden. 😂
Oh, happy day! What a great thing for your grandson to be excited about. It's kind of a twofer: chickens and dinos! I hope you made a quick edit to my bit of off color language! 😅 Thanks for sharing this Kim. I'm smiling!
Much appreciated, Teresa. Our farm days ended a long time ago, but I can be back there, mentally, so easily. Definitely formative and forever memorable for us. Thanks for cheering me on.
One of our daughters has chickens. Philippe was a lovely gentle fellow who met an untimely end. Then followed a not so mellow fellow. Our daughter wouldn’t dare go in the fenced enclosure without a stick. Their sons did most of the feeding. Not sure what happened to him. In the past, they’ve lost some to owls, raccoons, snakes, and an aggressive dog. They now have some new chicks, including two guinea hens, all being kept under close surveillance.
Thanks for the story. Wonderful picture of your daughter with her special friend.
The guinea hens might help - they make quite a racket - but it is a constant battle keeping them safe. That's one plus for keeping a rooster, but their personalities are such a crap shoot. We had some good ones, we had some bad ones, and we eventually gave up having them completely. I never grew tired of watching those flocks. Thanks for sharing a bit of your own story here, Suzanne.
As a boy I also had hens and one rooster... My brother insisted on being different, or maybe it was I who insisted, but whatever the case, my brother had three ducks... We had an aggressive attacking rooster and the male drake attacked also... We had 6 laying hens and two laying ducks... How cool is it to go to the backyard with two separate pens and find small eggs and gigantic eggs..... And two angry leaders of the pack.... After about a year or two we surrendered and let our backyard inhabitants be given over to a farmer... Betsy, I can just see you and Jim running around chasing that rooster.... It will make me laugh all afternoon.... After all I got pecked a few times myself..... Your story is wonderful... Thank you.
I'm finding a theme here with these males -- just saying. 😅 I know it's not universal, and as noted, there are reasons they're so protective. Sounds like you ended up with good memories in spite of it all. Love getting this little window into your childhood, Barry.
This makes me smile. I’m sending it to my son and daughter-in-law who off on this same adventure on a little farm in Colorado. When we visit, I enjoy interacting with the chickens, roosters, guinea fowl, goats, ducks, cats, and dogs. And it reminds me a little bit of grandchildren, in that I love being with them, and then it’s nice to leave them with their caretakers.
Heh...! I can appreciate that, Darrell. They are a lot of responsibility, which I have to admit, I don't miss, even though I loved interacting with them and taking in what they had to teach me. Your son and daughter-in-law are in for a ride that's never dull, that's for sure. I hope they enjoy the story, too. Thanks for sharing.
‘At the moment your foot slams down on the brake pedal, you hear a noise that sounds like a cross between a whoopie cushion and Tarzan.
You’ve flattened your daughter’s pet rooster.’
I laughed and laughed!! Beautifully done. A good way to teach the errant fellow an accidental lesson!
Roosters are fascinating creatures - incredibly protective on their own but horrendous rape squads when two ‘teenagers’ get a chance to try to rule the roost. Shudder.
We had a ‘chook lady’ here in our little village who happily ended up with all the roosters. She adored them all but her slide into dementia stopped all of that. Sigh.
Oh, I'm delighted to think of you laughing along, Beth! Thank you for letting me know.
To your other point, I saw some of that horrifying behavior, too. Less with the chickens than with the ducks. The Muscovy made my toes curl!
I do think some of the behavior we see in domesticated male animals comes from imposed structures and space/number imbalances that exacerbate existing tendencies.
I found new homes for quite a few roosters over the years. I'm quite sure some became soup. 😬
I didn't grow up around chickens, precisely because my dad had done so and was having no more of it. From your description of Peeper I'm pretty sure I'd need to stick to hens if I ever did venture near a coop.
I'd wager that there are as many calm roosters out there as aggressive ones, but you never know what you're going to get. It was definitely less stressful when we stopped taking chances and just found new homes for any males that came our way. As much as you enjoy watching behaviors, I think you'd love spending time around a flock of hens!
Thanks for joining the conversation today, Elizabeth
Rooster Cogburn was his name....looked just like the guy on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box and his spurs were fierce, as was he! This is hauntingly familiar. Oh, let's keep him. He's beautiful! The token male...and not long after...Oh shit. Now what do we do?....
I have to believe that, your last paragraph---they have a lot more going on than most folks realize and we had one named Polly that most certainly had us figured out. Completely. I, too, thought all those farm components would be easy to learn. No.
I'm 100% convinced: Farming is wizardry! Your Rooster Cogburn must have been quite a personality. It's always a shame when those handsome fellas grow up to be little demons.
I'm interested to read Montgomery's book partly as a way to validate what I've already observed. Chickens, like most other living beings, are highly intelligent and navigate complex social hierarchies. I found them to be endlessly fascinating. We humans tend to diminish the real brain power of everything, including each other, but especially the animals we choose to also consider food. Justification made easy.
Thanks for adding your own roo-story, Janice. Just great!
Heh. Easy depending on how well you manage expectations. 😜 It's satisfying, for sure, and also demands an attentive steward, as with the care of any living thing. Do you have any, Prue, or just the sheep?
I'm almost embarrassed to admit how loudly I laughed and "snorted" when reading the golf cart incident! In our small town there was a flock of guinea hens. To watch them running across the soybean field behind us was reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons of blousey chickens all stirred up. They would actually block traffic and on numerous occasions, I would exit my car to shoo them off to the road side. They weren't particularly smart and would roost all around town, their silly warbling like tin cans being rattled. They laid eggs everywhere; even in the middle of our backyard ,the domain of our lab, Bassett hound and frequented by a resident snapping turtle! The flock seemed to decrease weekly, mysteriously. The perils of rural life!
Haha! I'm delighted to know this tickled your funny bone, Susan. I needed a personal lift and imagined others might, too. Guinea hens are a little chaotic, and they make a lot of noise in the process. We had a flock at the farm early on, and we were concerned our bruiser of a cat would stalk them. Turned out it was the other way around. You've never seen a cat run so fast to get away from a band of noisy birds!
The mysterious disappearance of the guineas sounds like a Nancy Drew book in the making. 🕵️ Thanks for sharing your story. What a riot!
I love the line about not knowing shit from shinola about chickens. I’m writing about being in over my head this week and realizing the sense of aliveness that sometimes comes with it. Great story!
There is something to be said for persevering in these situations, right? If you stick with it, you're bound to learn something. Thanks for stopping by, and best wishes staying afloat this week, Mary.
Perhaps Peeper was a misunderstood genius. Or in need of cuddles. I love considering all of his motivations….
We have a feral cat that lives outside our neighbor’s house. She has 5 inside cats already so this guy is exterior access only. He sits on the air conditioner all day looking at the cats inside and all I want to do is imagine his inner monologue. I am convinced he thinks he was robbed of his birthright.
Also “playing chess with a tornado” gave me a snort laugh 😂
About the animal world in general, nature writer Henry Beston (1928) said (I just found this literally an hour ago, so I had to share it)
“… We patronize [animals] for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
And some of them are, indeed, chickens.
Great writing, full of moments (and snorts), as usual. Thanks!
We, too, had an...aggressive... rooster when we were raising chickens on a very small scale, for the eggs, for their company, and their definite lawn decoration qualities. We, too, got baby chicks through the mail, causing our then-absolutely reliable post office to call early (!) in the morning to ask us to come pick up a peeping package. We, too, asked for hens only and got the occasional rooster, which for years would be a singleton, all very agreeable. Until we inadvertently raised the Mean and Terrible. A proudly cocky glorious Rhode Island Red, we handled him with exquisite care, carried sturdy sticks to fend him off, and were lucky enough to be able to tend the chicken pen chores when all were out foraging on their own. We were away frequently and REALLY LUCKILY had a string of wonderful house sitters who were warned about the Mean and Terrible, and who dodged him successfully. Until... the wife of a photographer friend, being carried away by the bliss of gathering eggs from the hen house, got nailed in the calf. The wound became badly infected, a BIG concern as she was a dancer, a choreographer, and we were appalled that the Mean and Terrible could end her then-nascent career. It took ages, but finally all was healed, she went on to have a very successful career, and the Mean and Terrible had been ... eliminated. Our hens, in various small flocks, delighted us for forty-odd years, until we left that property 3 years ago, but after the Mean and Terrible, we never raised another rooster.
Apparently we've lived parallel poultry lives, Kippy, with the exception of the horrible injury. Hoo boy, I'm glad that ended well eventually. 😬
In writing today's piece, I was trying to remember the names of some of our other roosters: Punk Rocker, Big Red... I didn't get very far, and it's possible that's because we learned our lesson for good after a couple more. I'm sorry to say I've forgotten now!
I sometimes miss having chickens (though not the responsibility), and I definitely miss having a ready source of fresh eggs. I imagine you feel the same!
“when you don’t know shit from shineola about chickens” - haha! That’s me. Also, loved the images, especially the portrait on the chair!
Ha! We came a long way in our 13 years at the farm. I feel certain we have more pictures tucked away in some box or other, but I was happy to be able to put my hands on these for now. Good to see you here, Lindsay.
My 8-year old grandson is absolutely enamored with chickens... because of their still-obvious relationship to dinosaurs. A voracious reader, he'll get a kick out of this essay, which we'll read just after today's work session on the dinosaur habitat he's creating in the garden. 😂
Oh, happy day! What a great thing for your grandson to be excited about. It's kind of a twofer: chickens and dinos! I hope you made a quick edit to my bit of off color language! 😅 Thanks for sharing this Kim. I'm smiling!
Thanks so much. Fond memories of our rooster.
Tom and Linda
Thank you, Tom & Linda. Sounds like you had one of the good guys.
Love these old farming stories and photos. Please keep them up!
Much appreciated, Teresa. Our farm days ended a long time ago, but I can be back there, mentally, so easily. Definitely formative and forever memorable for us. Thanks for cheering me on.
Roosters sound good from afar! 😊
One of our daughters has chickens. Philippe was a lovely gentle fellow who met an untimely end. Then followed a not so mellow fellow. Our daughter wouldn’t dare go in the fenced enclosure without a stick. Their sons did most of the feeding. Not sure what happened to him. In the past, they’ve lost some to owls, raccoons, snakes, and an aggressive dog. They now have some new chicks, including two guinea hens, all being kept under close surveillance.
Thanks for the story. Wonderful picture of your daughter with her special friend.
The guinea hens might help - they make quite a racket - but it is a constant battle keeping them safe. That's one plus for keeping a rooster, but their personalities are such a crap shoot. We had some good ones, we had some bad ones, and we eventually gave up having them completely. I never grew tired of watching those flocks. Thanks for sharing a bit of your own story here, Suzanne.
As a boy I also had hens and one rooster... My brother insisted on being different, or maybe it was I who insisted, but whatever the case, my brother had three ducks... We had an aggressive attacking rooster and the male drake attacked also... We had 6 laying hens and two laying ducks... How cool is it to go to the backyard with two separate pens and find small eggs and gigantic eggs..... And two angry leaders of the pack.... After about a year or two we surrendered and let our backyard inhabitants be given over to a farmer... Betsy, I can just see you and Jim running around chasing that rooster.... It will make me laugh all afternoon.... After all I got pecked a few times myself..... Your story is wonderful... Thank you.
I'm finding a theme here with these males -- just saying. 😅 I know it's not universal, and as noted, there are reasons they're so protective. Sounds like you ended up with good memories in spite of it all. Love getting this little window into your childhood, Barry.
This makes me smile. I’m sending it to my son and daughter-in-law who off on this same adventure on a little farm in Colorado. When we visit, I enjoy interacting with the chickens, roosters, guinea fowl, goats, ducks, cats, and dogs. And it reminds me a little bit of grandchildren, in that I love being with them, and then it’s nice to leave them with their caretakers.
Heh...! I can appreciate that, Darrell. They are a lot of responsibility, which I have to admit, I don't miss, even though I loved interacting with them and taking in what they had to teach me. Your son and daughter-in-law are in for a ride that's never dull, that's for sure. I hope they enjoy the story, too. Thanks for sharing.
‘At the moment your foot slams down on the brake pedal, you hear a noise that sounds like a cross between a whoopie cushion and Tarzan.
You’ve flattened your daughter’s pet rooster.’
I laughed and laughed!! Beautifully done. A good way to teach the errant fellow an accidental lesson!
Roosters are fascinating creatures - incredibly protective on their own but horrendous rape squads when two ‘teenagers’ get a chance to try to rule the roost. Shudder.
We had a ‘chook lady’ here in our little village who happily ended up with all the roosters. She adored them all but her slide into dementia stopped all of that. Sigh.
Anyway, a terrific read. Thanks so much.
Oh, I'm delighted to think of you laughing along, Beth! Thank you for letting me know.
To your other point, I saw some of that horrifying behavior, too. Less with the chickens than with the ducks. The Muscovy made my toes curl!
I do think some of the behavior we see in domesticated male animals comes from imposed structures and space/number imbalances that exacerbate existing tendencies.
I found new homes for quite a few roosters over the years. I'm quite sure some became soup. 😬
Rooster soup is delicious. I speak from experience. 😃
Shhh! They might hear you.
Oh, this was a tonic, Elizabeth -- thank you! :-D
I didn't grow up around chickens, precisely because my dad had done so and was having no more of it. From your description of Peeper I'm pretty sure I'd need to stick to hens if I ever did venture near a coop.
I'd wager that there are as many calm roosters out there as aggressive ones, but you never know what you're going to get. It was definitely less stressful when we stopped taking chances and just found new homes for any males that came our way. As much as you enjoy watching behaviors, I think you'd love spending time around a flock of hens!
Thanks for joining the conversation today, Elizabeth
Rooster Cogburn was his name....looked just like the guy on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box and his spurs were fierce, as was he! This is hauntingly familiar. Oh, let's keep him. He's beautiful! The token male...and not long after...Oh shit. Now what do we do?....
I have to believe that, your last paragraph---they have a lot more going on than most folks realize and we had one named Polly that most certainly had us figured out. Completely. I, too, thought all those farm components would be easy to learn. No.
Great read Elizabeth. J
I'm 100% convinced: Farming is wizardry! Your Rooster Cogburn must have been quite a personality. It's always a shame when those handsome fellas grow up to be little demons.
I'm interested to read Montgomery's book partly as a way to validate what I've already observed. Chickens, like most other living beings, are highly intelligent and navigate complex social hierarchies. I found them to be endlessly fascinating. We humans tend to diminish the real brain power of everything, including each other, but especially the animals we choose to also consider food. Justification made easy.
Thanks for adding your own roo-story, Janice. Just great!
A whole lot of wizardry and I'd say by looking at that Brandywine you hold a more than a bit of magic dust. ~J
Golly - and here was me thinking keeping chooks was easy!
Heh. Easy depending on how well you manage expectations. 😜 It's satisfying, for sure, and also demands an attentive steward, as with the care of any living thing. Do you have any, Prue, or just the sheep?
Just sheep, but son about to get a little flock of chooks.
Oh, and my crazy little pup!
I'm almost embarrassed to admit how loudly I laughed and "snorted" when reading the golf cart incident! In our small town there was a flock of guinea hens. To watch them running across the soybean field behind us was reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons of blousey chickens all stirred up. They would actually block traffic and on numerous occasions, I would exit my car to shoo them off to the road side. They weren't particularly smart and would roost all around town, their silly warbling like tin cans being rattled. They laid eggs everywhere; even in the middle of our backyard ,the domain of our lab, Bassett hound and frequented by a resident snapping turtle! The flock seemed to decrease weekly, mysteriously. The perils of rural life!
Haha! I'm delighted to know this tickled your funny bone, Susan. I needed a personal lift and imagined others might, too. Guinea hens are a little chaotic, and they make a lot of noise in the process. We had a flock at the farm early on, and we were concerned our bruiser of a cat would stalk them. Turned out it was the other way around. You've never seen a cat run so fast to get away from a band of noisy birds!
The mysterious disappearance of the guineas sounds like a Nancy Drew book in the making. 🕵️ Thanks for sharing your story. What a riot!
I love the line about not knowing shit from shinola about chickens. I’m writing about being in over my head this week and realizing the sense of aliveness that sometimes comes with it. Great story!
There is something to be said for persevering in these situations, right? If you stick with it, you're bound to learn something. Thanks for stopping by, and best wishes staying afloat this week, Mary.
Perhaps Peeper was a misunderstood genius. Or in need of cuddles. I love considering all of his motivations….
We have a feral cat that lives outside our neighbor’s house. She has 5 inside cats already so this guy is exterior access only. He sits on the air conditioner all day looking at the cats inside and all I want to do is imagine his inner monologue. I am convinced he thinks he was robbed of his birthright.
Also “playing chess with a tornado” gave me a snort laugh 😂
Peeper certainly thought himself a genius, as must the neighborhood feral cat. Maybe they both need(ed) to be carried around under an arm?
I love the thought of you snort-laughing. Thanks for letting me know! 😅
About the animal world in general, nature writer Henry Beston (1928) said (I just found this literally an hour ago, so I had to share it)
“… We patronize [animals] for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
And some of them are, indeed, chickens.
Great writing, full of moments (and snorts), as usual. Thanks!
What a quote, Stew! That is one to keep, one to share, a real prize! They are other nations, indeed.
Glad you enjoyed this round of farm memories. Always grateful for your additions to the conversation.