The Pecking Order Is Up for Grabs

 

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Late Autumn

Ralph, my trusty farm rooster, has been missing two weeks now, and even though I found no trace of his demise, after all of this time he must be presumed to be dead.  That represents a real blow to my peaceful little patch of the planet.

One of Ralph's namesakes was Ralph the grocer from Lake Woebegone, Minnesota, who ran Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery - and I often referred to the big golden bird as my "pretty good" rooster.  But in reality Ralph was a damned good rooster.  I brought him to the farm early last spring after finding him stuffed in a parakeet cage at a roadside poultry swap.  The young entrepreneur that I bought him from seemed especially happy to be rid of the rooster, and when I got Ralph to his new home and set him free in the coop, he seemed especially glad to be free of the creepy kid who had stuffed him in the cage.

Ralph was immediately at home at The Roost, and he quickly took an interest in the little chicks which I still had  penned up in private quarters inside of the coop.  As soon as I freed them a couple of weeks later, Ralph moved in and took charge.  He was their daddy, and he was not bashful about letting them know it.

There were eighteen (I think) young ones at first, four guineas and the rest little chickens - most of whom were showing early signs of being young cockerels - roosters.  And even though Ralph was a great dad who went out of his way to keep the little birds from harm, herding chicks is no easy matter and there were always strays.    Eventually predators, primarily hawks, began picking off the stragglers and those adventurous few who wandered freely on their own.  By the time Ralph disappeared, the poultry census at Rock's Roost, was down to just three little brown banty roosters and three guineas.

The six remaining birds get along, kinda - sorta, and at night they all go into the coop like Ralph taught them to do.  But the fowl do have their moments.  The little roosters  are basically mean little s.o.b.'s who fight among themselves and take enormous pleasure in sneaking up and attacking the backs of my legs whenever I stroll across the farm - and the guineas are generally more docile but put up quite a racket whenever they are disturbed or when visitors show up.  But even though they usually are not aggressive, the guineas do prevail whenever they mix it up with the little roosters.

Last Saturday afternoon I was walking around the farm picking up sticks and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, when I observed a dustup between the two sets of young farm fowl.  One of the little roosters had done something to upset a guinea, and the guinea was running at full-throttle in pursuit of the offending banty rooster.  The other four birds were chasing along behind cheering on their teammates. As I watched in total amusement, the angry guinea suddenly lunged forward and  grabbed a beak-bull of the little rooster's tail feathers and would not let go.  The rooster continued to run, shrieking in absolute terror, but the guinea held firm.  The last I saw they disappeared running toward the barn with the other four in full, noisy pursuit.

The next morning they were all back together, chasing bugs and pulling up weeds as though nothing had happened.

Ralph would have probably put a quick end to that rowdiness, but he is gone and the pecking order is apparently up for grabs!