The Roosters in Society

I’ve been thinking a lot about roosters this weekend.  Obviously since I’ve set the tone that this blog is going to be from the perspective of a rooster named Ollie, it only makes sense that roosters might be a point of focus.

The main issue I’ve struggled with is how disliked roosters have become.  I really cannot think of another species-group less liked.  Municipalities write volumes of legislation minimizing, if not eliminating the rooster from their cities.  Neighborhood groups fight against their presence and individuals when buying chickens clearly state 99% of the time that they do not want or cannot have a rooster in their flock.  After all, most of what roosters do during the day is eat, breed (or think about breeding) and crow.  Who would want a creature like that in our society?  What possible redeeming value can they have?

(Now I’m going to resist the temptation to compare roosters and their contribution to society to a large percentage of males in American society because, if we were to look hard, I think we could find at least some redeeming virtues for the American male, though I’m hard pressed to find any at this writing.  What I will do is focus on the rooster and his redeeming values.)

First and foremost, a rooster is responsible for the safety of his flock and he takes this responsibility seriously.  How many of the aforementioned American males will be willing to throw his body into the path of a raging coyote or a swooping hawk in order to save his hens.  The roosters in our yard are constantly at watch for predators that may threaten the flock.  As I have been sitting here writing this, on three separate occasions the roosters in our yard have universally sounded a low-pitched, almost growl -type of alarm alerting the flock to a hawk overhead.  On numerous occasions I’ve heard tales of a rooster attacking a coyote in the yard with the sole intent of providing his hens a few extra seconds to reach safety from a marauding pack.  This single-purpose role alone should elevate our crowing friends into the more highly respected breeds of animals currently reserved only for dogs.  No, a rooster does not equal a dog, at least not the higher developed and trained dogs in our society.  (I will hold judgement on the Chihuahua-Pekinese-Pomeranian types of dog as I personally have not found much redeeming value to these yappers.)

If having a dedicated, defense-minded, always-on-the-alert rooster as a member of your family still doesn’t convince you, then perhaps I can pull on your heart strings a little.

Sex education 101:  For every egg hatched, half of them will be roosters.  It is estimated that over 200 million unwanted roosters are hatched each year in the U.S. At SimsFarm, it is on a very rare occasion when one of our customers wants to buy a rooster.  We have had some customers who love having roosters at their home, but for the most part people buying chicks and birds want hens only.

To give you a personal view of what this means I ask you to pause the next time you purchase chicks at your local feed store, farm, or website.  Take a moment to count the number of hens you have purchased and then realize that there are an equal number of roosters that have been destroyed in order to support your purchase. Yes, it is your fault.  You bought the hens but you did not buy the roosters to go with them.  Who else is there to blame? 

There are societies in our world that have devalued a certain segment of that society to the point that they are not only ostracized but literally thrown out with the trash.  Today, for instance, there are 1 million more men in China than women as a result of the one-child policy over the last generation coupled with the over-valued focus on male prodigies.  This kind of focus in any society, animal or human, is never good.

At SimsFarm we strive to find purpose for every bird hatched on our farm.  We rejoice when a rooster is adopted and goes home with a happy family.  I celebrate the life of every rooster I’ve brought to our dinner table recognizing the blessing his sacrifice has provided our family’s nourishment.  (That last sentence is a shocker to many people who cannot begin to understand that providing meat to our dinner table is a valuable destiny of many of these birds – “Oh, I could never do that” is the general response.)

Yesterday we “threw out” five hatchling male chicks.  It is the first time I’ve done this but the reality was they had no purpose or destiny in our society.  I felt awful as I snuffed out their life before it had a chance to begin but I had no choice.  We also sold 4 roosters to good homes yesterday… if only it could have been more.

Yes, this article is meant to fill you with remorse and guilt because I believe in today’s world, like roosters, there are individual’s getting a raw deal.  Just as starving and unwanted children around the world deserve a place in society, I would like to see a rooster crowing in every backyard in our society because it would mean that there will be a newly found understanding of where our food comes from and what the cost of that food truly is.  The next time you are awakened at 3:00 am by a crowing rooster, rejoice that the world is not a sterile, overly manipulated, fragment of our imagination but that it truly is a world diverse in every way that allows room for the most of unwanted of us… even roosters.

And… if there is room for a rooster, maybe, just maybe, there will be acceptance, deliverance and the reality of hope made available to millions of outcast women and children who are starving and are in slavery in our world today.

Signed by…

A rooster whose society allowed it to live

Introducing: Ollie the Old English Orpington Rooster

Ollie lives a rather different life than most roosters.  Roosters are generally unloved by the world.  Ask anyone who raises backyard chickens about roosters and they will usually say, “Oh, we cannot have roosters.”  Yes, roosters have a lot to say to the world, especially at 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning and because of this noisy tendency, most people reject them outright without benefit of a second thought.

So rejection is the first issue most roosters have to deal with in their lives.  It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your pin feathers become, or how good you are at defending the flock from predators, or how beautiful you sing… no one wants you.  Can you imagine living a life with this level of rejection everywhere you turn?  Do you think it would affect your approach to life – a life void of love and acceptance?  What creature on earth can live like this?  The best animal videos posted on Facebook usually show animals demonstrating interaction, togetherness, and love.  Where does that leave our roosters?  Do you think it colors their perspective?  Do you think they might hold a chip on the shoulder as a result of this rejection?

Ollie has not been rejected, at least not by us at SimsFarm.  He is an accepted member of our family but not without limitations.  The first limitation is that we cannot put Ollie in a flock with other roosters.  He was living with his brother but their little brotherly spats became violent in nature.  We found Ollie one morning bleeding profusely from his wattle.  (I would provide you a definition of a wattle but the one I found uses the word caruncle in the definition and don’t think anyone knows what a caruncle is.)  Suffice it to say Ollie was bleeding from the red thing that hangs down below his beak.  So he was rejected by his brother and separated from the flock.

We also cannot put Ollie with hens; for now.  Besides crowing, roosters are best known for breeding.  It is, you might say, their purpose in life.  (You could call it their number one joy but we should probably not go there.)  When we breed chickens at SimsFarm it is done intentionally and with purpose in mind.  We do not allow random, cross-breeding to take place. We only want Ollie to breed with a hen of his breed and those hens currently are not ready for his affections.  This is not necessarily a rejection for Ollie to deal with but it is an imposed ban delaying temptation and desire.

With this isolation ban in place, we brought Ollie into our backyard previously reserved for ducks and have let him run loose. And boy, does he run!  He has a wonderful life exploring the corners of our yard, visiting the chicken yards we have at all corners.  Daily, he makes his rounds flirting with the girls, discussing issues with the roosters, playing with the ducks, and taking advice from the turkeys. He also romps with the dogs (or at least runs to get out of their way).  He is developing quite a worldly view and each morning as he leaves his dog house (yes, he has his own home that he retires to each evening as the sun goes down.) he greets the morning with excitement, vigor and a song.

It has been through my observations of Ollie, an unfettered, accepted and loved rooster that I’ve come to respect his opinions of the world at large. I suppose you will find his perspective a little different than most, but I think as we dig into sharing his insight and wisdom, we may learn that a more simplistic, scaled-down view of the world is really the best way to live.