Stripey has become a stately specimen of a Dominique rooster. He is a large bird and seems proudly aware of it as he struts his black and white stripes. He has a thick red comb with a dull matte finish. His wattles drape beneath his yellow beak like a rubbery red beard. His striped feathers intermingle on his broad breast to almost form a checkerboard. His short body feathers form a stiff peak at his rear, but they are overshadowed by his billowing tail feathers that arch over the peak and trail like fireworks.
With his feathers fluffed he is an imposing bird. His size is due in large measure to his free access to food from the automatic feeder. I stock the feeder with layin’ mash for the hens, but Stripey seems to find it suitable to his taste. He’s failed to lay even a single egg, but that extra protein has worked wonders for his physique.
Stripey is a 5 month old chicken which is 18 to 20 in people years. He has lost his childhood shyness and in his late adolescence has become much more aggressive. Two of the 5 hens are small Banty size and in the past 2 weeks I have seen him muscle them out of the way when I bring bread crumb or lettuce leaf treats into the chicken house. He’s a little snippy with 2 of the 3 big chickens, too, and seems sweetly tolerant only of Genu, the large black Australorp hen, who can be found snuggling up next to him on the roost each night.
This week I have watched him especially closely trying to understand this metamorphosis from shyness to strongman. I have squatted next to him to look him in the eye. He has amber eyes with black circular pupils that gaze at me harshly when I am in his space. Up close I can also see a tuft of short feathers that stick straight up and surround his comb like a punk hairstyle. That punk attitude is further enhanced by the fact that he can glare at me with only one eye at a time, so he has to slowly turn his head from side to side to get the full picture.
Since I had observed the behavior change with the hens I was not overly surprised this week when he lunged at me as I bent over to adjust the door between the enclosed yard and chicken house. I was not surprised, but felt committed to making it clear that I would not be pushed around by a chicken. After considering my discipline options I decided to tell Stripey a little Halloween story entitled “A Rooster’s Nightmare.”
The story began with a recounting of my springtime trip to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and how I happened upon a Colonial-garbed woman who was an expert on Poultry in 17th and 18th century America. She stood in her chicken yard as she spoke to our group gathered around the fence. The rooster of the yard, who I believe was a Dominique who greatly resembled our own Stripey, appeared and began to march about the perimeter of the fence. This cunning rooster strutted around gradually closing the distance between himself and the lecturer. Finally, when he was at close quarters to her heels, he lunged forward to take a fierce peck at her exposed ankles. Without missing a word this petite red-headed woman, greatly resembling myself, swung her arm around and snatched the Lord and Master of the roost up by his skinny chicken legs and held him dangling silently upside down. The poultry expert interrupted her talk long enough to explain that 5 minutes of such dangling would precipitate a modest rush of blood to the rooster’s head which would leave him weaving about and render him quite harmless for an undetermined period of time thereafter. I believe that undetermined period is rather brief, but I did not share that detail with Stripey.
After recounting my story to Stripey I stood to my full 5’6″ height and politely left the hen house. I am hopeful that despite his small head size Stripey will listen to a word of caution and be particular about whom he chooses to peck. Just in case I’m honing up on my leg-snatching skills.