We have a less than sociable rooster. Every morning, I pray that I'm quicker than him when I let them out of the coop (i've tried fighting with him, we've tried ignoring him and we've tried making him submissive. None of it's worked. I think he doesn't like my leopard print boots). My hubby works 2 jobs, so the evenings that he's working, I have to lock them up for the night. With the days shorter, we have a light on a timer, and if I go to lock them in and their light is still on, Big Red the rooster attacks then when I try to fill the food pan. So I wait til their light goes off. This evening I went down, and tried to sneak up on them. I had the flashlight, turned off in my pocket cuz I could see enough with the moonlight. I made it thru the first gate- THUMP I hear him jumping off the roost. I wait. The house gets quiet, so I attempt the inner gate- one hen comes halfway down the ramp, and another pokes her head out the door. The one on the ramp goes back in and the other keeps her head out, looking around for a minute or 2. She finally goes back in. A bigger silhouette appears out the door. DANG IT! He stands there. Not moving, staring at me with his beedy little eye. I wait a few minutes, he goes back in. I wait til the house gets quiet and I can't hear any movement. I inched closer and closer to the ramp and the chicken door. The house was quiet- I hadn't heard Red thudding around. I get where i can see in the door, I lean over slowly, knowing that Red's gonna to jump out the door and attack my face any second. I can see the food pan, and it's not too far into the coop and BANG! the flashlight falls out of my pocket, rolls down the ramp and nearly made me jump out of my skin. I threw the food in, and think half of it ended up on the floor. I slammed the door shut and am fumbling with the latch and THUMP. I made it out unscatched. Now I have to remember to clean my flashlight really well- I usually hold it in my mouth when I do evening chores...
