Re Rustica

The duck named “Rooster” thinks that he is a chicken. He was raised with two hens and, when we adopted the three friends at the shelter, was quite confused. He takes good care of his hens, making sure they find ponds to bathe in (though they don’t want to bathe in the water - they prefer dust baths - he pushes them in). He finds them good things to eat and then eats them himself to demonstrate that they are good, urging them to join him with his “tasty” call, which they do not understand. He herds them about with his mallardly mastery using words and gestures they understand as well as those used by real roosters. He also sits on their eggs and defends them.

His inability to communicate with his hens is a problem, but nothing so severe as to break his love for each other. They are his hens and he is their rooster - er, duck.

He also take care of the other chickens. He has a special friendship with Scuttle and will treat him like a hen. Ducks can’t tell the difference easily between roosters and hens.

We love “Rooster” almost as much as the hens and real roosters do. He stands guard at night over the entire flock like a rooster ought to, taking shifts with Rodney and Scuttle (the other roosters are too tired to take a shift). Like a rooster, he sings them songs to let them know everything’s alright, or alert them that something strange is happening. He announces when we come by, and a few of the chickens stagger up to us to see if we’ve brought them a treat.

Any time two species make friendship or love each other, they learn how to talk to each other or otherwise serve each others’ needs. When humans adopt a pet, either domesticating a wild critter or taking in a domestic one, we teach them some of our language so they can help us, too.

All our birds know how to “go home,” “find your rooster,” “hide,” and “come to the coop!” We teach them several dozen commands. Some are very friendly, and enjoy being picked up. Because, when they are young, we help them if they are injured in front of the entire baby flock, they know to come to us when they need help.

Yesterday, some of our geese got attacked by a coyote. The coyote lost, and now looks for mice to eat, but one of the geese got a scratch on her leg. She ran up to us and wanted to be held, so we told her to give us her leg for us to inspect. We told her it was alright and gave her some treats. She rested for most of the day, and her flock kept her company.

Like our “Rooster” duck, all animals understand more words of another species’ language than they can speak. Though we could not express ourselves in “goose” we could express ourselves in english, and she understood, giving us her leg and holding still. She could tell us something was wrong with her and we understood. The duck can tell his hens about the joys of bathing and… well, perhaps some things can’t be understood.

The chickens were making this noise (click on the link below to hear it) and we instantly knew that high above us was at least one hawk.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE HAWK ALARM

The chickens instantly ran to their nearest rooster, knocking over the water jugs set out for them, running into walls and, in their terror, even flying into us! Rodney and Scuttle have been, recently, battling to become head rooster and each was giving the head-rooster hawk alarm call, nervously running here and there, checking on all the lesser roosters and the hens in their watch. The lesser roosters behaved well: they herded their hens next to trees, the truck, their coop, buildings and whatever tall object they could find that would make it difficult for a hawk to swoop down and sieze one of the hens.

We got a picture of these hens with Patrick, our Rhode Island Red Rooster:

The hens sought whatever rooster was closest, knocking water jugs about, running into walls - and us. These hens felt safe with Patrick, who led them next to the coop for safety.

It’s clear who the hens and lesser roosters trust more, though: Scuttle gave the “all clear” signal for minutes before Rodney, but when Rodney sang “all clear,” the hens immediately relaxed and went about their business. This is due, in part, to Rodney’s good manners and courtesy: he dances and sings well, he greets all the hens and lesser roosters politely, he never mates the hens without their permission, he never is punitive with the lesser roosters whom he battles and wins against. Scuttle is as uncourteous as he is uncouth, and though he is twice Rodney’s size, Rodney is easily able to beat him in battles defact of his courage. Rodney is brave enough to be head rooster, and the other birds know it.

The hawks, for their part, were entirely disinterested in the chickens, having spotted a family of rabbits long before. They were stalking the rabbits since early in the morning, waiting for them to come out. However, our watchful roosters knew that as the hawk swooped wider and wider in a gambit to lure the rabbits out, if the hawk lost interest in the bunnies, chicken might be on the menu.

Good job to all the roosters!