Goodbye roos, hello hens

After a month or so of three "hens" waking us up rather loudly at 6:30am, we were drawn somewhat reluctantly to the conclusion that some of our hens, well, weren't. We should have taken the hint early on. When Buffy started to crow a bit, we dismissed it as, "she's a tom-boy," and my wife even came up with some evidence that sometimes, in a flock of hens, one might end up being the alpha hen, and crow a bit. I've got to tell you, we did a pretty darned effective job of convincing ourselves, even after all three started to crow at all hours of the day (and at the aforementioned 6:30am), but eventually we figured the neighbors were on to us and would have the Chicken Police calling on us at any moment. Fact of the matter is, roosters are not legal in our town, and given the racket, it's no wonder. So we finally resolved to take action and asked all of our friends and associated if they had any idea what to do. "Ha, ha," we thought, "surely everyone will want a beautiful rooster that we swore was a hen!" No such luck.

Finally, we found a woman up in Cotati, about two hours north, who labels herself as the "Chicken Queen," and gave her a call. She was certainly friendly, and gave us some good advice - try Craig's List, and if that failed, she would "re-home" our roosters. (Apparently she raises chickens mostly for backyard flocks, and can find good homes for wayward roosters.)

So we put up an ad in Craig's List, complete with pictures of Buffy the Vampire Chicken (perhaps "Buffo" was a better name) and Moxie Crimefighter Chickenbutt/Rock-n-Roll/Red. I still held on to the hope (now completely, outrageously false) that we might keep our off-white Ameraucana (Snowball/Frenchie), who had turned into a really gorgeous bird with tremendous personality. (Not a chance - he was crowing, too.) Anyway, Craig's List has a one-week free listing, and we figured we'd make use of the Chicken Queen if all else failed.

Our first bite on Craig's List came a couple of days later, and it turned out to be a dud - probably a scam artist hoping that what we were selling was something we'd pay a bunch of money to ship. Our second bite, however, was a great one - a couple, living about 45 minutes south, who really wanted Buffy (Buffo?) for their flock of girls. I made arrangements to take him down on the weekend, and away we went. When I arrived, they turned out to be a wonderful couple with about 8 hens running around a large pasture with a couple of goats and a whole lot of room to scratch and run. We put Buff in a temporary cage, and two of the hens immediately came up and started making some noise: "Ooo, check him out... he's kinda cute!" Apparently they let him out a bit after I left, and then he went in for the night with his new harem. Check out Buff, strutting his stuff in front of the girls:



Here he is in his new roost at night, with the girls:



And here he is with another of the lovely ladies:



We didn't get any more serious bites on Craig's List before our time was up, so we planned to take the other two roosters up to Cotati. The day before we left with them, I spent the day at home, working on my computer outside. They made it pretty clear that they liked to hang around me by helping with my work:



Fact is, roosters are full of personality - sometimes a bit too much, as Rock-n-Roll was starting to nip at our heels and toes towards the end of his stay. But they were curious, beautiful birds, and I was sad to see them go. Here are some head shots:











In the end, we decided to keep our remaining snow-white Ameraucana, Dijon (Dijon Chicken, a.k.a. "Poupon You," a.k.a. "Snowflake"):



...and we got her two new friends, Cinnamon Girl, a.k.a. "Rockin' Cinnamon Roll":



and the new incarnation of Moxie Crimefighter Chickenbutt:



They are practically inseparable:



Dijon wasn't sure what to make of them at first, but has taken to mothering over them, so all is right in the Chicken World.

And a word to the wise: "deer resistant" plants are largely chicken-resistant as well. Good to know.