Stupid Chicken Things, continued

4.12.13

As some of you know, I have a rooster named Rooster Cogburn ( RC for short). He's a Lavender Orpington and is the Only roo here. Therefore, he is even More macho than ever. He struts himself about, crowing when he hears me talking, or if one of the hens lays an egg. This, we call the " Oh My Gawd, I Laid An EGG !!! song)  He will strut himself around, making all kinds of enormously loud chicken sounds, right along with the hen who REALLY did the work. He really is quite handsome, but he's oh so prone to doing 'stupid chicken things'.

Like when he decided that one of our boarders would be terrified when he 'jumped' at her as she was in the hens' house. Not smart-  Stooopid.... She grabbed him , picked him up and carried him around for a few minutes ( see former blog posts.) I even took pictures of him being held.  This totally befuddles and humbles one so great and majestic. RC, like many other roosters ,isn't known for his high intelligence. "Eraser Brains" is what I jokingly call my chickens.

One evening last week, I walked up to their chicken house calling them as it was dinner / bed time. The hens who know the house belongs to them came running as fast as their little chicken legs could carry them, and RC came hopping along, but not as fast, as he's SO big. We all walked up to their house together....me telling them how smart they were for being such good girls ( and you tooo, RC). I poured some of their dinner in the small black dish (think water bowl for a dog size) and scattered some around for those hens who are lowest on the pecking order there.

RC was So hungry, and being a very big piggy, tried to stand IN the little bowl as he pecked up the crumbles. Well, as you can imagine, one big rooster IN a feed bowl, and trying to peck up some of the crumbles at the same time, didn't work well. He lost his balance and fell out of the bowl, beak first. After much flapping and sorting of feathers, he stood there looking at me ( who was cracking up) very indignantly, as though to say " I PLANNED TO DO THAT .".   Some days it's hard being a rooster. It still makes me chuckle just thinking about it but then I'm easily amused after so many days alone on a farm.

 Here's RC with "My Pet Chicken" Lilly...