Every few years, our chickens get old enough that they essentially stop laying eggs, and we know it's time to replace them. We drop the old chickens off with some friends of ours in October, and in the spring, we get a box of day-old chicks in the mailbox from McMurray Hatchery. We only order hens because we want the fresh eggs, but McMurray always throws in a free rooster with every order. When our order came last year, we had some school-age girls here to help get the chicks settled, and they named the rooster "Squawkers" because every time they touched him or picked him up, he would squawk.
Well, Squawkers grew up to be a fine looking rooster (see photo at right), and we had high hopes that he would live here for many years, alerting us when dawn broke and just generally adding his own personal flair to the chicken yard. Oh, we had no idea then of what was waiting in that little package!
Squawkers is now a full-grown rooster and he does, indeed, let us know when dawn breaks with a "cock-a-doodle-doo" that carries throughout the neighborhood. He also lets us know that the sun is out, in general - and I mean it! He cock-a-doodles the entire day, from sunup to long after sundown! If there is any light sighted from the chicken coop, he will let us know!
But worse than that is that Squawkers is not a friendly rooster.... He knows that I will check for eggs at least twice a day, and he lies in wait for me. As I come near the chicken yard, walking towards the gate, he walks along the fence with me, strutting and pecking at the fence. He lets me know that he is up for a fight, no matter how big I may seem!
Yesterday, when I went to collect eggs in the late afternoon, he was nowhere in sight - and I thought I might be able to sneak up and get into the chicken coop without his seeing me! As I opened the chicken-yard gate, a flying beast launched itself at my head from around the corner of the coop, claws and spurs extended! I don't know if you have ever seen the spurs that roosters grow on the back of their legs, but his are over an inch long - and very sharp! I ducked out of the way, but he got my arm on the way down - and I still hadn't made it to the coop for the eggs!
I quickly dove towards the coop door, but not quickly enough because Squawkers came back for another assault - this time, at my legs. I was wearing heavy jeans and I kicked back, figuring that a moving target would be harder for him to hit, but by the time I made it into the chicken coop, a circle of blood was slowly seeping through the denim. So much for the protection of heavy jeans!
I slammed the chicken coop door so that he would have to go around to the other side to enter the smaller chicken doors, giving me time to collect eggs. I finished quickly and cracked the door open to see if my path to safety was clear. He was nowhere in sight, so I decided to make a run for it - with thirteen eggs held in sling created from the front of my shirt! I must have been some sight: eggs bouncing in my shirt, my head down and running, closely followed by a crazed rooster with plans of mayhem on his mind. I don't suppose anyone has a need for a "spirited" rooster?
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