Oh, No…Another Rooster

When you order baby chicks, you never know what you are going to get. Even if you order all females, you are bound to get a rooster. The science of sexing a chicken is about 98%…but that gives you a 2% chance of getting a rooster in the batch. Last year, we got 8.
We were hoping this year our luck would go the other way. It was not to be.
From the time you get them home as cute little fuzz balls, until they start laying, or crowing is about 5-7 months. Let’s face it, all chicks are cute. Running around the coop peeping. No one can resist just watching them.
Their peeping turns to a clucking, or in this case a crowing. Have you ever heard a young rooster try to crow? It is an awful funny sound. The first time I heard it, I couldn’t figure out what the noise was. I looked around the farm, and didn’t see anyone. It was like someone yelling, with a bit of a gargle sound thrown in. When I finally found the sound coming from Sue, her name was changed to Stallin. A befitting name it was too, as he took charge of the whole barnyard…including us humans. For that, he went to the freezer. We let George take over the flock. George takes care of his hens, but leaves us humans to ourselves.
It is official again this year. Michael heard that gargling sound again yesterday coming from the new flock. Our choice now is wheter to keep is as two flocks, or delegate one to the freezer, and let King George continue his reign.