A couple of weeks ago one morning, when the sun was just about to break up through the horizon, I went downstairs to wake up my rooster and the hens.
My “bossy” black rooster started crowing, although in much reduced volume due to his homemade “no-crow collar”. I got inside the coop to collect last night’s poop. For reasons unknown to my conscious, I looked up. The most beautiful of the flock, my grey “hen”, looked at me right in the eye, turned, stared at “her” rooster for a second, turned to face me again and let out one of the loudest and most “mature”, “Cocorico”!
“What, are you French?” I stared at HIM, “and most importantly, you are a ROOSTER?!”
His immediate reply was, “Cocorico! Cocorico! Cocorico!”
Well, that settles it.
As though that’s not enough of a shock for one morning, the long-suspected-perhaps-rooster “Annoying Brown” went and stood right next to Grey and let out a VERY “immature”, “Co-doodle!”
Oh, wonderful, here goes my THIRD rooster. A “bi-lingual” one at that!*
I shook my head, even though nobody paid me any heed: three roosters and two hens, now busy picking up sunflower seeds, their favorite treat.
The event got me reading and pondering more on “sexing” of backyard mixes. My chicks came from a variety of dual purpose breeds whose parents “applied” “natural mating method”. 🙂 However, sexing them before their “teenage days” proved to be difficult. The “brave” but “knowledge-left-much-to-be-desired” gentleman farmer who sold me those “shrinking-hen-population” chicks didn’t know he was simply providing some straight run chicks, who gave me the opportunity to state, “Statistics don’t lie” and call my flock “The Coin Flip bunch”. 🙂
I don’t blame Roberto since I learned a great deal about chickens through the whole experience and he simply “didn’t know better”.
However, the purpose of this little writing is to warn any naive future homesteaders who’d like to venture into trying to gather and consuming eggs produced “at home”: Spend less money, buy double the number of straight run chicks unless you plan on purchasing your chicks from reputable hatcheries which guarantee their “sexing rate”.
To this day at 24 weeks old, my two hens have shown no signs of laying.
“Are eggs coming?” I inquired one day, now facing the nicest rooster I chose to keep and two hens.
“Cocorico!” The buff grey rooster responded.
Not a word from the hens, who are busy eating mealworms.
For Further Reading:
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/cockerel-rooster/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/the-heart-of-the-matter/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/creature-of-habit-adaptation/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/chicks-hatchlings-individuality/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/impatience-may-have-grave-consequences-life-death/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/chicken-observation/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/chicken-feed-food-fascination/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/authenticity-freedom/
http://www.meditativelifecoaching.com/blog-all/homemade-incubator/
reference:
*http://www.bootstrappin.com/2008/10/cock-a-doodle-doo-dialects-of-the-rooster/