The Chicken Chronicles 7.31.20

Well, though it's fun to have a post dedicated to the chickens every week or so, this one (and the next few) will mostly be centered on Bandit.

Isn't he pretty?  And when he's all grown up his tail feathers will be long and beautiful and I would love to see that.

Unfortunately, Bandit's voice speaks louder than his looks (and his personality, which is also quite lovable), and it doesn't look like we'll see Bandit full-grown.

He's getting loud.  At this time he crowed semi-loudly periodically throughout the day, and especially in the mornings and evenings.  While some of our neighbors don't mind him, and even like hearing him ("He makes it feel more country here!"), the neighbors who live directly behind us do NOT like the crowing, and have been very vocal about it.  They yell across the fence at us, at the kids, and tell us to get rid of our rooster.

Then they called the cops.  A police officer paid us a visit telling us that an unnamed neighbor complained about our rooster.  We knew that we were not breaking any laws - in our town families are allowed to keep a rooster - but of course didn't want to create a feud with our neighbor.  (We also found it funny that the officer made sure to also give us advice on raising chickens and which breeds he prefers.)

We love Bandit - his guard-dog habits, his bossiness, his feistiness, and even his crowing - but know that getting rid of him is the right thing to do in this case.  We wouldn't kill him, but we couldn't think of an alternative.  We'd talked about it a little bit before the police came knocking, but discussed it more seriously afterward.

As for the rest of the flock, they like the raspberries so much that there are none to be found in our little patch.  And this week they met several new people among our cousins and neighbors.  After the family reunion I asked some of the cousins what the highlight was for them and Dylan didn't hesitate.  "The chickens."