frenzy in the henhouse

Popular belief is that roosters crow at dawn. Many believe that roosters crow only at dawn. Neither is true - especially if there is more than one rooster in the barnyard. MHf roosters have been known to crow anytime throughout the day. After the first rooster bellows, the other roosters take it as a challenge to see who has the best, the clearest, the loudest, and the most ferocious crow. And let's not forget the most attractive for the female. Posing in the most beneficial crowing position, each rooster accepts the challenge with all the gusto he can muster. They banter back and forth a few times and then all is well again. Daylight is their prime time to perform so the nights are usually quiet.

Usually quiet, that is. Awakened in the middle of the night, why on earth was one particular rooster repeatedly crowing? (Like parents with children, a farmer learns the particulars of each animal's voice.) This was indeed just one rooster. He was crowing as if his vocal chords had been hard-wired to a metronome. Over and over and over. Come on, already - we hear you! Falling out of bed and into our clothes, we venture outside to investigate. (It's 1:30 in the morning.)

For some reason everyone is outside under the yard light. In the middle of the night! What is going on? Except for the constant rooster crow, the flock seems fairly relaxed. But sleeping outside has never been a regular practice. A look in the henhouse leads nowhere. The rooster has since quieted. He must find a little comfort in having us out there. A walk around the henhouse leaves us baffled. Nothing seems to be wrong. It's obvious, though, that something is wrong as this is not normal behavior for the MHf flock. We're at a loss. As odd as it seems, we let them be and returned to bed.

While doing chores the next evening (more than 12 hours later), we found the problem. Curled up tightly in the bottom corner nesting box was this uninvited visitor. His coloring just blends right into the wood. That and the fact that he was resting way back in the box was the reason we didn't see him the night before. We were amazed that he was still hanging around, but thrilled that he was still asleep. Taking careful aim, three shots took him down. No more hen house villain. This critter could be the same reason we had been finding broken eggs in the nesting boxes recently. Perhaps we just stumbled upon a barnyard sign of things to come. We'll have to put that one in the memory bank.