A Rooster for a Rooster

Back in February when we ordered our chicks, we ordered pullets -- that is, females. You don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs (do women ovulate without men around? of course!), so most people want as few roosters around as possible. Actually, we enjoy having a rooster, so we told our friend Emma that if any of the chickens turned out to be a roster, we'd take him.

The hatchery promises 96% accuracy, not 100%, and indeed, one of Emma's Araucana chickens started growing long tail feathers and crowing at daybreak, so we arranged a swap. We'd ended up with three black-and-white hens with feathers on their feet -- we're still not sure what breed these are, and Jordan and Meg think they look stupid with those foot feathers. One of them had been the runt of the litter, and and she was still a bit smaller than the rest. Emma had only one of these, so we swapped the largest feather-foot (Kiev) for Senor, their rooster.

Senor did crow up a storm, and not only at daybreak. The first night he must have woken up a lot, due to unfamiliar surroundings, and we were beginning to regret the swap, but he settled down on subsequent nights. We really enjoy having a rooster to boss our hens around. Our friend Charles decided that the name Senor didn't fit with the rest of our chicken names, so he dubbed him Kabob.

A few weeks later, Emma's dad Doug called us to report that we'd given them a rooster. Not that he was complaining, you understand, but there was a resigned, tired note to his voice. I thought Doug had gone completely around the bend, or maybe, being an English professor, he was a bit confused about poultry. Okay, our chicken might be bigger than their chickens, but she didn't have any of the characteristics of a rooster. However, the next time I dropped by their house, our former chicken crowed, so it looks like however weird the coincidence, we swapped a rooster for their rooster! We offered to swap back, but I think both families are fine with who they've got.