Blue Ridge Country July/August 2024 - 8

ROOSTERS IN THE HEN HOUSE
Boots and Ruffles
Exploring the vagaries of roosterhood.
TEXT AND PHOTO BY BRUCE INGRAM | PHOTO STYLING BY JANETTE SPENCER
E
laine and I have two flocks
of Rhode Island Reds in
adjoining runs, and every
week both coops have to be
cleaned. With our grandsons Sam and
Eli living across the hollow, we frequently
call on the boys to help us with removing
the voluminous amounts of manure
chickens create weekly.
As such, the boys have a sense of ownership
with our birds, and with that ownership
comes such perks as naming the
chicks. Last summer when it was clear
that some of the chicks were males because
of their larger feet, feistier nature
and larger, redder combs and wattles,
Sam and Eli dubbed two of the males
Boots and Ruffles. The former received
his name because of his clodhopper-type
feet and the latter because he seemed to
ruffle his feathers constantly.
As is the way of life in a chicken run,
only one rooster is needed to service the
hens and produce the next generation of
chicks. It's also a truism that more than
one rooster in a run ... means unending
skirmishes and skittish hens tormented
by the unending-shall I say-attentiveness
of the libido-driven young roosters.
It was of no great matter to the boys
when the two unnamed brethren of
Boots and Ruffles became Sunday dinners.
And with the regal Tom reigning in
Coop I, Ruffles (noticeably smaller than
Boots) eventually had his inevitable date
with the to-be slow cooker.
A few days later when Sam (Eli was
ill at the time) came over to help clean
coops, he innocently inquired where
Ruffles was? I gave a litany of reasons
why I decided to opt for Boots as the future
breeding male, but Sam's constant
tearful reply for each point was " Ruffles
was mine, I named him. Eli named
Boots. " A factoid that I was unaware of.
Elaine and I have constantly strived
to treat the now 11-year-old Sam and his
9-year-old brother equally. All Christmas
present hauls must be roughly the same
value, and wages for chores completed
are always the same no matter what the
particular task was. Sam, feeling slighted,
spent the rest of the morning sniffling as
he bravely tried to put on a masculine
front that all was well.
When I explained to Elaine what had
transpired, she sagely said, " I don't know
how you're going to get out of this one.
There's no getting around the fact that
he feels you killed his rooster. "
I thought a great deal about the situation
and when both grandsons came
over the next week to help clean the
runs, I had my speech planned.
When Sam came over to help clean coops, he innocently inquired where Ruffles was?
I gave a litany of reasons why I decided to opt for Boots as the future breeding male,
but Sam's constant tearful reply for each point was " Ruffles was mine, I named him. "
8 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
" Eli, did Sam tell you that I had to kill
Ruffles? " I asked.
" No, " he said.
" Guys, I don't ever enjoy killing any
of our chickens that we've raised since
they were chicks, but sometimes, I have
to. We can't have more than one rooster
in a run, or there will be non-stop fighting.
Roosters will sometimes kill each
other. And once, we even had one rooster
kill a hen from mating with her too
much and fighting over her.
" Yes, we love our chickens, and it's
important that we take good care of
them. But they aren't pets like Max [the
boys' dog]. We would never kill Max,
right, unless he were old and sick, right? "
Both boys quickly agreed with the
premise that Max would never be put
down unless he were suffering.
" So you understand that the chickens
aren't pets like Max is a pet, " I continued.
" Sometimes granddaddy has to do
what's best for the whole flock, and that
means sometimes I have to kill a chicken
that isn't sick because that's what's best
for the other birds. Do you all understand
that? "
Both grandsons said they did, and I
think and hope they really did. Sometimes
being a granddaddy is almost as
hard as being a daddy. As Elaine said
later, not all lessons are happy ones.
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2024

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