We’ve been raising chickens for the last year and a half to ensure a steady egg supply, as well as to ensure we have some source of meat if needed in an emergency. Along with the six hens we bought from a neighbor to get started, we also received a rooster. He was one of two that the neighbor had, and they were father and son. The younger rooster had become mature enough to be a “threat” to his father so they were beginning to fight. The neighbors were happy to give us the young rooster for free.

The first thing that grabbed our attention was the fact that every morning, this rooster would crow back and forth with his father. The neighbors we bought the chickens from only live three houses down from us. So, our rooster would crow, then their rooster would crow. Then ours. Then theirs. Back and forth this would go on for a good hour or so. There was no doubt that these two birds were communicating. I couldn’t help wondering if our rooster was saying, “Ha Ha, Dad! I got my OWN flock of hens now!!”

The rooster proved to be extremely amorous toward his hens, if you can call it that. Every morning when I opened the coop door, he’d be the first down the ramp, and he’d jump on top of the very first chicken to hit the ground. So, he earned the name “Randy” because that’s exactly what he was. Over the last year and a half, he grew into quite the beautiful bird.

This was the day that Randy has a run-in with the neighbor’s dog.

On Saturday last week, we got a call from our neighbor next door telling us there was a dead chicken at the edge of our yard. I went out and found that, unfortunately, it was Randy. A check of the chicken enclosure uncovered a big patch of brown feathers as well, plus a trail of feathers leading away from the fencing, and into our woods. Apparently, a fox had dug under our wire, and grabbed one of our chickens. Randy did not have his wings clipped and we think he flew over the wire to go look for the hen, and was attacked at the other end of our yard. He was way too big to be dragged under the wire of the enclosure.

We’re not overly emotional about the incident. We’d lost two chickens prior to this but they were attacked outside of the enclosure when they were free-ranging. After the second loss, we stopped that practice. It’s not like losing a dog. The chickens are there to lay eggs. They are indeed cool to watch. They are very curious, follow me around, and can act kind of silly at times. But, they don’t like to cuddle.

But, Randy was unique and we do consider his death a loss.

At first, I thought all he really cared about was mounting hens every chance he got. He was pretty aggressive about it, sometimes even grabbing the hen by the head with his beak as he’d have his way with her. But, it would always be over in about 15 seconds, and the hen would always just get up and trot off like it was no big deal.

It didn’t take long to notice that the hens did indeed look to him for their protection. Normally, wherever he was, the hen harem would be close by. Along the way, I noticed that, whenever I threw scratch on the ground for them, or fed them their favorite snack of mealworms, Randy would always put his head down, and point at the food with his beak. He’d make a rapid, quiet clucking sound and the hens would come and eat. Randy would not touch a single morsel until one or more of the hens had stopped eating. He would stand tall, and look around as all the hens would have their heads down, pecking at the ground. Even if I threw some food directly to him, he wouldn’t touch it until some of the hens were done and had their heads up.

One time, Randy decided to go exploring. He flew over the chain link fence of our next-door neighbors’ yard (the ones who found him dead this week). They have a gigantic dog named “Archer.” The fenced in back yard is Archer’s enclosed area and he has access by way of a dog door. Angela happened to be on our back porch taking a break from the computer when she heard an incredible ruckus coming from next door. Looking over, she saw Archer with Randy in his mouth, shaking him back and forth. She screamed, and ran downstairs. Our neighbors heard the clamor and got hold of Archer, forcing him to release the bird. Angela and the neighbor wife got a gate open, and shuffled Randy out of the yard. He looked rough, but was alive and kicking. He never flew over that fence again.

Randy figured out how to climb up the stairs to our back porch a couple of months ago, which is basically our second floor. We awoke to hearing Randy’s crowing really, really close. I got up, went through the kitchen, and looked through our French doors that lead out to the deck. There he was, standing right outside the doors, crowing his fool head off. That was a first. I had to get dressed, and chase him back down the stairs as he clucked back at me to express his disapproval.

Just Friday, the day before we awoke to find him dead, we were working on our computers. I was in the office and Angela was just across the hallway. Out of the blue, Angela calls to me, “The rooster is on the front porch.” This was unexpected because we no longer allow our birds to free range. They stay locked up in their enclosed chicken yard. But, Randy had flown over the 4-foot fence to come let me know that I’d forgotten to come out and throw out their scratch. How do I know? Because, as soon as I stepped outside, he began clucking excitedly, and jogging back toward the chicken enclosure. He didn’t try to get away from me, or to run free in the yard. He went right back to the enclosure, and waited by the gate until I got there. I opened the gate and he trotted right over to the doors of the shed I keep the chicken food in. As I threw the scratch across the ground, he pointed and clucked, but didn’t touch a seed until the hens had eaten. He had flown out, and come to our front door to make sure I fed his hens. He truly had protective instincts.

It’s weird that we aren’t overly emotional about the loss of Randy. But, we do feel a loss. I’ve had to put two dogs down in the last 10 years, and both times tore me up. I’m a die-hard dog lover and I may as well have been watching a human relative pass away. Finding Randy dead was nothing like that. But, we definitely notice the lack of his crowing throughout the day. There’s a noticeable absence in “Chicken Town” (what I call the chicken enclosure and coop area). I think we were just fascinated by his antics and character as he’d strut around our yard. He wasn’t just another chicken. He towered over all the hens, and yet was incredibly gentle and caring toward them – at least until he got “randy” again.

There’s an up-side to this story. The eggs our chickens will continue to lay for the next few weeks will still be fertile, as Randy was so thorough in his attention to his harem. So, we’ve collected some of the eggs and placed them in an incubator. We’re down to three hens left from our original flock of six hens and Randy. We’re hoping to have some new chicks 21 days from now. Hopefully, one of them will be a rooster. If so, he will have Randy’s genetics in him. And, it will be fun to watch him mature and see how much of Randy we’ll see in him.

Stay tuned for incubator updates!

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Brian Whiddon is the Managing Editor of WritersWeekly.com and the Operations Manager at BookLocker.com. An Army vet and former police officer, Brian is the author of Blue Lives Matter: The Heart behind the Badge. He's an avid sailor, having lived and worked aboard his 36-foot sailboat, the “Floggin’ Molly” for 9 years after finding her abandoned in a boat yard and re-building her himself. Now, in northern Georgia, when not working on WritersWeekly and BookLocker, he divides his off-time between hiking, hunting, and farming.

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