- Jun 14, 2012
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Having lost my big rooster, Presley to a neighborhood dog, I was left with one small banty hen named Delilah. Weirdly enough I was trying to raise these chickens while living in a trailer park in Tennessee. Even weirder, my elderly neighbors who were missing the morning crow, gifted me with another rooster. They found him, a full grown banty with a missing eye, at a local flea market. When I finally arrived home from work that evening, they released him from their van where they had been keeping him. He immediately shot 50 feet straight up into the tallest tree in the yard with no intention of coming back down! It was the dead of winter and got down to 13 degrees that night so I fully expected to find him frozen on the ground the next morning. When I got up, I was thrilled to look out and see him gingerly stepping up and down the street trying to thaw out his poor little feet which seemed frozen into tree branch position. Pretty soon though he caught sight of Delilah who was only too glad to share her breakfast. He followed her around most of the day at a distance, finally roosting outside of her front porch rubbermaid coop that night. By the next day they were a couple and within a few nights he moved in to sleep on her heating pad which I had strapped to her roost to fend off the cold. After that first cold night, I had never seen him stand on both legs at once. With that and the missing eye, his name naturally became Uno.
While Presley was still living, Delilah had found a large flower pot in the yard that I had placed some big marble eggs in for decoration. Evidently thinking "oh, this is where the eggs go!", She had begun to lay some sweet little brown eggs of her own. She never sat on them and I didn't realize that this was probably because it wasn't safe. I had an amazing watchcat named Chaos who had proved to me that nothing was coming near her chickens. (Presley had wandered away the day he was murdered. I found him a block away.) After she had been with Uno for quite a while, Delilah began to sit on her eggs, night and day. One fateful night when Chaos had been locked in the house, disaster struck. I don't know what got my poor chicken but I suspect racoons. I found no trace of her but the eggs were broken and cleaned out and even the heavy marble eggs had been tossed out into the grass. I felt terrible for not protecting her better. Uno seemed totally lost and unsure what to do without his friend. He mostly just sat on the porch with Chaos or roosted high up in his tree.
One day I left the front door propped open to catch the breeze (that's air-conditioning in the trailer park, ya'll!). Pretty soon here comes Uno, pecking his way around the living room. The house dogs had learned early that chickens are friends not food and therefore stayed put. We all just sat and watched him scavenge for whatever the dogs had missed in the way of crumbs. Eventually he found his way into a corner by a mirror and settled down and cooed himself to sleep, apparently pretty comfortable. a short time later, he awoke and began to preen. All of a sudden he got a look at himself in the mirror with his good eye. This formerly docile little roo absolutely lost his s**t!! I mean he attacked this "other" rooster in the mirror with everything he had, two inch spurs and all! There were feathers and chicken spit flying everywhere and we were all, of course, convulsing with laughter! Except the dogs who I believe went and hid under the bed! Well, eventually he realized that this "other" rooster didn't want to fight and settled down. In fact he snuggled up to the mirror perfectly content.
After that, Uno darted into the house to sit with his "friend" every chance he got. In fact he spent so much time in my living room doing all that nasty stuff chickens do, that I put a mirror outside for him. He spent a good part of every day hanging out with his friend in the mirror. This proved to me that chickens are not supposed to be alone and have that much in common with humans. We all need our flock. Uno lived a long life. A solitary yet happy rooster until he was swept from his high tree one night during an awful storm, never to be seen again just like his true love.
I am always amazed at what we can learn from the little creatures that the good Lord places in our care. Rest in peace my little friend, you were the best trailer park chicken ever!
While Presley was still living, Delilah had found a large flower pot in the yard that I had placed some big marble eggs in for decoration. Evidently thinking "oh, this is where the eggs go!", She had begun to lay some sweet little brown eggs of her own. She never sat on them and I didn't realize that this was probably because it wasn't safe. I had an amazing watchcat named Chaos who had proved to me that nothing was coming near her chickens. (Presley had wandered away the day he was murdered. I found him a block away.) After she had been with Uno for quite a while, Delilah began to sit on her eggs, night and day. One fateful night when Chaos had been locked in the house, disaster struck. I don't know what got my poor chicken but I suspect racoons. I found no trace of her but the eggs were broken and cleaned out and even the heavy marble eggs had been tossed out into the grass. I felt terrible for not protecting her better. Uno seemed totally lost and unsure what to do without his friend. He mostly just sat on the porch with Chaos or roosted high up in his tree.
One day I left the front door propped open to catch the breeze (that's air-conditioning in the trailer park, ya'll!). Pretty soon here comes Uno, pecking his way around the living room. The house dogs had learned early that chickens are friends not food and therefore stayed put. We all just sat and watched him scavenge for whatever the dogs had missed in the way of crumbs. Eventually he found his way into a corner by a mirror and settled down and cooed himself to sleep, apparently pretty comfortable. a short time later, he awoke and began to preen. All of a sudden he got a look at himself in the mirror with his good eye. This formerly docile little roo absolutely lost his s**t!! I mean he attacked this "other" rooster in the mirror with everything he had, two inch spurs and all! There were feathers and chicken spit flying everywhere and we were all, of course, convulsing with laughter! Except the dogs who I believe went and hid under the bed! Well, eventually he realized that this "other" rooster didn't want to fight and settled down. In fact he snuggled up to the mirror perfectly content.
After that, Uno darted into the house to sit with his "friend" every chance he got. In fact he spent so much time in my living room doing all that nasty stuff chickens do, that I put a mirror outside for him. He spent a good part of every day hanging out with his friend in the mirror. This proved to me that chickens are not supposed to be alone and have that much in common with humans. We all need our flock. Uno lived a long life. A solitary yet happy rooster until he was swept from his high tree one night during an awful storm, never to be seen again just like his true love.
I am always amazed at what we can learn from the little creatures that the good Lord places in our care. Rest in peace my little friend, you were the best trailer park chicken ever!
