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WAKE UP CROW
When we moved into our house many years ago, it was a time when dogs could run loose and people didn't fence in their yards. You could even own a few chickens. Our neighbors, a few houses away, happened to have a half dozen banty hens and one rooster. The rooster would invariably spot me hanging clothes on the line and make a beeline to attack my feet. I'd go running and yelling back to the house, much to the amusement of my husband.
So when our daughter came home from school one day, asking me to sign a permission slip so she could bring a baby chicken home, I wasn't all that thrilled.The second grade teacher at the kid's school always got an incubator and eggs and let them hatch in the school room. She timed it so that the chicks could be taken home by any child whose parent would allow it.
I signed the permission slip and "Brownie" became part of the family. Brownie roamed the yard and the kids were careful that the neighbors'cats and dogs left her alone.
The crazy chicken even would come into the house and sit on the hassock in front of the television. We all laugh thinking about the time she jumped up on my father-in-law's leg, which was up on the hassock, and proceeded to dump what it is that chickens dump.
Vacation time came along and we made plans to go the beach for a week with friends, their two kids, their nephew and their dog. This made forfour grownups, five little kids, a teenager, a dog, and a chicken. Brownie loved it.
When summer came to an end, we wondered what to do about this chicken. My husband had cousins who lived on a wheat ranch in Eastern Oregon so we phoned them to see if they could take her. They said yes, and we took a trip to deliver Brownie to her new home so she could be with other chilckens.
The cousin called us a few days later with the message, "Don't bring any more of those city bred chickens up here! That blasted chicken hasn'tstopped chasing everything in the barn yard since she got here -- including the roosters!"
So, when my son happened to get the same second grade teacher I was prepared. Well, not quite. Because this "chicken" turned out to be a rooster -- one that grew into the biggest white rooster I ever saw! All went well until he started crowing at dawn. He didn't just start out crowing grandly -- the noise that came from that bird was unreal!
When he finally got it down pat, I got an early morning phone call from aneighbor with the message, "If you don't shut that rooster up in the morning, it's going to be in a pot on my stove tomorrow night!"
We lived only a few blocks from a family who had several chickens so that night I drove down there and secretly let him out over their fence. But several days later I was feeling very guilty and stopped to tell the neighbors why they had an extra rooster in their yard. Fortunately, they were fine with it, and in fact, had planned on getting a rooster anyway.
You guessed it. Our third child got the same teacher. This time,things didn't go well as the little chick only lived a few days. However, feeling that it was only fair, we bought a chick at the feed store --Brownie #2.
The kids were delighted and I would get a kick out of holding the banty hen perched on my arm so it could peck at the ants crawling up our walnut tree. But one day, the hen mistook my eyeball for an ant and pecked at my eyeball. Can you imagine having to call your workplace to tell your boss you can't make it because of the pain caused by a chicken pecking at your eye? It took me years to live that one down.
Brownie #2 ended up over the mountain with a neighbor's relatives but we still reaped the rewards as they would bring us back a couple of little brown eggs each time they visited.
Thank goodness I only had three kids, and three chickens. Our next pet was a dog.--
Betty Bergstrom
Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.
"If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs."
- Russian Proverb
