Face Your Fears

Look at that face. I wish I had a photo editting program on this computer, so I could crop and zoom to emphasize that look of determination. That is a man with a mission. Unfortunately for my youngest daughter, his mission was to keep her in line.

This rooster, named Pie, is the most gentle rooster we have ever had. He doesn't show regular rooster aggression, except torward my dear Princess #2. She is desparately afraid of him. And apparently chickens, and especially roosters, have an inborn instinct to take out those who are weak. In this case fear is weakness (Boy, that would preach wouldn't it?). All he has to do is scratch the ground with in a hundred yards of her and she is paralyzed with fear. The more afraid she is, the more aggressive he gets (dirty looks, wing flapping). She is in the picture above perched on the fence with a stick in her hand, and trusty German Shepherd near by for defence (HaHa--I just made a funny--get it...De Fence?).

Anyways, to make a long story shorter we have decided to build an add on to the hen house. That way the hen can have her own apartment in which the Princess can visit and gather eggs completely un-preterbed by the onerous Pie. Pie has his own separate compartment so that we can let out the hen for foraging while he stays put and will have to be content with his grain. It was either that or make pie of Pie. I promise to post pictures of the hen house later this week, as we didn't finish it until the sun was already setting.

All in all, it was a good situation since just before we completed the addition he had decided to give Princess #2 a good flogging, and a 15 pound (yes, he is quite large) rooster flying at your head when you are happily crouched down playing in the sand, can be quite tramatizing I am sure. See--now you aren't quite so upset with me for threatening to make him live up to his name. And yes, we need to keep him around, because Princess #1 is planning on incubating more eggs and that wouldn't work as well with out Pie's contribution. Soon, I will have to tell you how Pie got his name. That is a great lesson learned on chickens...