Odd Man Out--We hatch our chickens each year, plus we never weed out any older hens so we have grandmothers and great grandmothers. Not real productive, but fun to watch when they fly out of the hen house and spread out to look for bugs. Since we never know when we'll lose a chicken to a predator, our practice is to save two roosters with the pullets and put the rest in the freezer. By having two roosters when the wild critters roam, we have a fifty-fifty chance one survives the summer to produce chicks. Last spring, we caught the pullets and two roosters in the chicken room in our hay loft and put them in the hen house. Every two years we change roosters to ensure good hatches. A few weeks later, I'm doing chores and enjoying a nearby rooster crow Good Morning. After a closer look, I spotted the crower, a small chicken which I thought was a pullet. I'm thinking I never heard of a pullet that crows. Oh, no, it's a rooster. We didn't need an extra rooster. Two usually battle out their territories, select their girlfriends and go their separate ways. I debated catching Odd Man Out, but the other two roosters didn't mind him so why should I. What a difference a year makes. By this spring the cocky little bird filled out some. The other roosters must have just realized he wasn't a pullet. He had the nerve to woe some of the hens away from the larger roosters. It didn't go over well for him when the roosters ganged up on him. After some rough cock fights which Odd Man didn't win, he still refused to give up his rights to procreate. The other two roosters punished him by banning him from the chicken house at roost time. So Odd Man has learned his place around here. Even though his life is in danger at night, he sleeps in the barn. He even convinced one hen to feel sorry for him and join him. Each morning, he crows loudly while it's safe to boast to his competitors that he's still here. It's easy to be brave when the other roosters are shut in the hen house while this place is his domain. His hen follows behind him on a bug hunt, waiting for his Come Here cluck. All that bravado fades the minute the chicken door opens. Odd Man hides in the barn. As soon as he thinks it's safe he sneaks into the hen house to eat corn. The roosters usually are on watch for him and chase Odd Man from the chicken yard. Like the chicken house, it's evidently off limits. The rest of the day he and his hen hides out in the front yard like in a game of hide and seek, he repeatedly crows, “Find me if you can.”
The story you just read is true. Some day, I might need a story to add to my farm scenes in my Amish books. This one will be filed away for future use.
