A Tail of Two Roosters

Last fall I acquired three chickens from a forest service colleague. I told my grandson Johan he could have one for his very own, but he would have to keep it at my cabin. He chose the beautiful black one with iridescent green feathers and  named it Jupiter. I took all three chickens home to Iowa for the winter, and on the very first day Jupiter disappeared. Johan was heartbroken.

When spring came I brought the two remaining chickens back to Minnesota for the summer. Although everyone was well acquainted, one day I came home from work and found that my dog Susannah had eviscerated Oyster. That left only Brownie, a lonely little chicken on her lonely little island. Johan came to visit and l told me that I really needed a rooster to keep Brownie company. He proceeded to tell me that he would really like a rooster for his birthday. Finally he said the ONLY thing he wanted for his birthday was a rooster. His birthday was fast approaching, so I set off on a rooster hunt. The Minnesota Backyard Poultry and Chicken Group on Facebook was a great resource and advertised many free roosters, but most were too far away. I eventually found a man in International Falls, 70 miles away, who had a pair of cream legbar roosters with which he would part. The two roosters were brothers and had never been separated.  After work one day I made the trek to his acreage with my chicken coop made out of hog slats and picked up a beautiful 2-year-old cream-colored rooster with a multi-colored tail. The man wanted me to take both roosters, but I was afraid if i did poor Brownie would get roostered to death. I said I would take only one, so it was a sad goodbye for Meteor as I drove away.

Just at sunset I lugged the crate with a squawking Meteor up the hill to the cabin and installed him in my coop. Poor Brownie had to spend the night outside because I didn’t want to risk a rooster escaping when I opened the coop door to let her in. For the next two days and  nights Meteor stayed in the coop and Brownie stayed under a bush. By the third day, I decided he was acclimated to his new home and opened the coop door. That was the last I saw of Meteor. When I got home from work, Susannah and I scoured the woods, crowing, clucking, and cackling, but to no avail. Alas! Johan was arriving for his birthday party the next day, and I had no rooster! So back I drove to International Falls to pick up Meteor’s brother Saturn. We got home without incident, repeated the same ritual, but this time I locked Brownie in the coop with the rooster. I decided they would  both remain captives for a week so I didn’t lose anyone again

The next morning, dawn begin to color the eastern sky and Saturn began crowing. As I was getting ready for work, I could hear him out the east window.  But wait! Now the crowing was coming from the west! Then the east again–east, west, east, west! Eventually I realized there were two roosters crowing. The brothers were talking to each other! The lost was found! I had to leave for work, and when I returned I found two roosters, a hen, and a dog all peacefully coexisting. And now, as much as I didn’t think I wanted two roosters for my one chicken, that is what I have! It remains a Peaceable Kingdom, at least so far.