Story of Love, Loss and Family Memories!

Our Silkie rooster Al Capone had two beautiful hens that were always by his side.

That was until a Red Tail Hawk decided to kill them both.  After the first death we partially cover the top of our run hoping to deter the assassin.

It seemed to be working and Al and his remaining girl seemed to be doing okay after their loss.

That was until one Saturday I went out mid-afternoon to do an egg pick-up only to stumble upon a murder-taking place.  It was not a pretty sight.  I went after the hawk and the hawk easily escaped through the opening over the run.  I was heartbroken and feeling pretty guilty for not covering the entire run.

We watched as Al become more and more depressed.  Though he was a small guy he took his role as caregiver of his girls pretty seriously.  If he found a morsel in the grass he would always do a little call to his girls and show them where it was.  Quietly going without, so they did not.  A real gentleman you might say!

We watched with broken hearts at his obvious mourning.  He was always in the corner of the run by himself and would be the last one in the coop at night.

Al Capone

My husband kept encouraging me to find him another Silkie girlfriend.

I had been checking on the Internet and asking around to a few people I know who have chickens, I even called the local hatchery to see if they would have a hen to sell.  No luck.

Then I hit pay dirt and an ad popped up offering Silkies and Blue Marans.  I was doubly thrilled because I had wanted to get Blue Marans and our Hatchery does not sell them.  Blue Marans are nice looking birds, but people want them mostly for the mahogany colored eggs that they lay.

Maran eggs

I did some emailing with the owner of the hens and we agreed that I would take a single Silkie hen and two Blue Maran hens.  Because it was an hour drive to the farm I convinced my hubby, Jim to drive out with me on Sunday. (Such a good guy!)   We arrived to the Farmers home and a very gruff man came out of his house and pointed to a barn that sat off to the side.  “He would meet us over there” he said and walked away.

All Righty then!

We drove over to the barn and waited for him to make his way over.  He directed us around back where he had dog pens filled with different chicken breeds.  We stopped in front of the white Silkies and he informed me for any hens I took I would have to take a rooster.  WHAT!  He had told me in our emails that I could just buy a hen.  I had asked because I already have two roosters that I acquired the same way.

“Nope” he said,  “You take a hen, you get a rooster”.  URGHHH!

I tried, tried, tried to charm him into letting me go with out a rooster and let me just say I can be pretty charming. 😉

NO luck!  I don’t even think he knew what charm was.  My hubby said “just take him we will find him a home.”

OH YEA RIGHT, he meant I would find him a home. FANTASTIC!

Our Silkies chosen, boxed up and put in the back of our SUV, I reminded Mr. Friendly Farmer that I also wanted Blue Marans.  You guessed it.  “You take a hen, you get a rooster”.

We had to get in our car and drive a little ways down the street to a second makeshift barn for the Marans.  We pulled up to this barn and through a small 2′ opening through the door we could see a pack of roosters, yes I said pack, their had to be 20 roosters that were HUGE giving us the stink eye!

You guessed it we were getting one of them to take home!  GREAT!

After the Farmer entered this barn (we had to wait outside) we listened to a lot feathers ruffling, chickens screaming and noises I had never heard before Mr. Friendly Farmer  came walking out of the barn door with three chickens in one hand hanging upside down by their feet.  I was a dumbstruck by the whole situation, so Jim took over putting our new additions in their travel box, shoved me in the car and we high tailed it out of there.  Leaving Mr. Friendly Farmer in the rear view mirror.

Now on our way home with the new additions, I had an hour to find a home for the new roosters.  I decided to drop our Big Maran Rooster at a local petting zoo down the street from us that has goats, chickens, ducks and a turkey.  I would worry about the little silkie rooster later.  Needless to say, I was still shaking off the effects from where we had just left.

We made a successful drop of the big rooster at the zoo and headed home to introduce our new hens to the rest of the brood and hope that Al Capone would be excited with his new ladies.

Let me just say Ol’ Al immediately perked up and welcomed the ladies with enthusiasm.  Wink, wink. 😉

 new hens

All was going well until a few hours later we received a call from the zoo owner saying our rooster had escaped and they couldn’t catch him.  My son Jacob and I headed down to the zoo figuring we would easily catch the big guy.

We couldn’t have been more wrong!  The guys at the zoo gave up a few minutes after we arrived and left us to our own devices.  We spent about an hour almost catching him, only to miss him inch after inch.

After the hour, I was pretty fed up and suggested we give up and head home.  Jacob would have none of it.  He knew that chances were good that the big guy would not make it through the night with the raccoons and coyotes we have around our neck of the woods.  So, I headed home to grab our pool net in hopes that with a net we would be able to snag him.

Back at the zoo Jacob had herded the rooster into the woods against a fence. We worked as a team, a few you go left with the net, I go right with my sweatshirt (don’t ask, we were desperate) we both made a heroic lunge with a last-ditch effort and bam Jacob snagged him in mid jump.  We both were lying on our bellies, filthy dirty looking each other in the eye with one exhausted rooster wrapped up in Jacobs sweatshirt.

After a beat of exhausted silence, we both started to laugh after I caught my breath,  I looked at him and said  “your going to remember this for the rest of your life aren’t you!”  He said “yep, and you have a bunch of sticks in your hair”  NICE!!

Ahhhh a bonding moment caused from the love loss of one Al Capone and a Big Dumb Maran Rooster!

But of course – now I have four roosters!

Introducing Foghorn Leghorn or the Big Dumb Rooster!

He is actually pretty sweet.