Vintage Quest Acres

Months ago, we had bought some chickens from a fellow homesteader. She said she had too many so we acquired her surplus. Among this surplus were two Americana Roosters. Teenage roosters. We already had a rooster, a gentleman white rooster. He had a teenager period too, that ended abruptly when the chick from his favorite hen was taken by a hawk. Ever since that day he has been an attentive rooster, doing his job of protecting his flock.

One of the roosters we were told had a mean streak. He frequently attacked the little girl at his first home. But our kids are older/wiser and we figured they could handle him. What we did not figure on was the complete out of control teenager energy we would have to deal with. The two new roosters ganged up and would terrorize our white rooster and all the hens. The hens were upset, the white rooster no longer had the control of the flock and these two teenagers were having too much fun at the expense of others.

Our solution was to separate them. It was soon apparent that the one rooster was the dominant one and mean. We thought that eventually he would calm down but he did not. We banned him to the outside of the pen, while the white rooster and the other teenager settled their differences and ruled over the hens with fairness.

Mean Rooster (as he was so named) became aggressive to anyone walking on the outside of the pen. He attacked people from behind, and I started carrying a stick whenever I had to pass by. I often told him that he would be the reason I would start eating meat again - I would gladly give up my 20+ years of vegetarianism to eat him. I wondered why we kept him. My husband said that he was there to protect the other chickens - he would be the one a predator would eat first.

Instead, he created a mystery. He did end up dead, no doubt killed by a bored dog. We found piles of feathers where he must have given fight and flight. Eventually the path led to Mean Roosters body. A week before we had adopted a new dog, an Australian Shepard, who is supposed to protect the chickens. He did sound a warning bark that night and we didn't respond properly. Or did our new dog kill Mean Rooster? Why didn't our dogs chase off whichever dog came on their property?

Yesterday though there was relief on my part as I walked by the chicken pen. I didn't have to watch my back or pick up a stick, or wonder if I was going to have to kill Mean Rooster that day.