The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Django, Where Are You?

July 19th, 2013 · 2 Comments · Posted in farming

Have you seen this rooster?

Have you seen this rooster?

It’s been a week at least and not a peep out of Django, nor has there been any rooster sighting.

I think Django, that handsome he-man of a chicken, has flown the coop.

For a time it seemed Django was settling in here. He stayed fairly close to the house and began his crowing around daybreak. He’d crow and crow and crow. He seemed to hold little interest in our pullets, preferring to strut around the grounds on the other side of the house or perch under the pickup truck. But one morning I found him under the mobile coop, pecking at feed that had fallen through the wire bottom onto the ground. Maybe, I thought, he was about to bond with our flock.

It was not to happen. Last I heard from Django his crows were coming from a field on the other side of a line of trees some distance from his usual haunts. Then, nothing. Or was that him in the distance, crowing from someone else’s farm? Days went by and occasionally I’d stop whatever I was doing and strain to hear what I thought was Django, somewhere far away. Sometimes I was sure it was Django, other times I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.

Now the sun is rising over the hills on the other side of the valley. Normally, Django would be crowing his head off. It was a sound both irritating and reassuring and the same time. Now all I hear are the song birds.

We’d gotten Django free and moved him here from the only home he had known. The lesson, I guess, is that a rooster uprooted from his home turf holds no allegiance to his new owner. Django obviously has his own agenda.

Will we miss having a rooster on the property? Mainly, I wanted someone keeping an eye on the sky and sounding an alarm for our hens in the event of a hawk attack. But wait. Now that the pullets are getting older, one stands head and shoulders above the others. Tail feathers are growing long on this one, taking on colors. A bright red comb and wattles are emerging.

I beginning to suspect that among our 30 pullets, this “she” may in fact be a he.

Stay tuned….

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  • Celia

    I hope Django is either settled somewhere else or met a swift end. It’s difficult to re home a rooster – Django’s story is a good lesson for those who frown on culling a rooster for the pot rather than finding a new home for him.
    I hope you do have a rooster among your flock after all – you’ll have fun watching him 🙂 I love seeing ours organise his ladies and strutting about.

    btw in a flock one bird always does take the lead role and if it is a hen ‘she’ can develop into a ‘he’ – or is that a myth? Will need to check that out.

  • Ed Bruske

    Lesson learned, Celia. I’ve been hoping all along their might be a rooster among our pullets. He would definitely feel more of a bond with our crew. We’ll see how this develops.