Cock-a-doodle-ooh....

A couple of weeks ago, during one of our very windy days the top of the chicken coop was blown open where the shade cloth slips in under the corrugated iron....normally this wouldn't have been a problem, as it has happened before and I just yank it back under the iron to close the gap.  However with the pea fowl tending to walk over the top of the shade cloth, they have caused it to keep opening up.

One such afternoon that it was open I went to feed the chickens and found our spare cockerel cowering in the corner at the far end of the coop....it had obviously flown in from the top, not bargaining on anything like what it had happen to it.  Head down and full of blood I managed to get him out  between the other chickens and the obvious offending cockerel that had been fighting with him.  I understand now how damaging cockerel fighting can be and how one will fight till it has killed the other one off.  Lucky I arrived timeously to save the cockerel from it's near fate and it ran for cover where it normally sleeps together with the peahens and peacocks.  It has taken all this time to recover and thankfully today when I went out it was outside scratching around and crowing with his usual cockerel pride.

Many years ago, we inherited a spunky cockerel from a school friend of Matthews.  His name was Lawrence and he ended up coming to live with us because as a 'city boy', his neighbours' complained about his constant crowing in the early hours of the morning.  He was a family pet and well loved and cared for, but they had to get rid of him.  So he came to us, living on rural land on the outskirts of the city, we were allowed to keep domestic and farm animals...and neighbours' didn't complain.  Lawrence used to fight with anything that came into his space, whether it be a goose, a dog or a horse....he ruled the roost...hehe.  He slept every night in the huge avocado tree and one night, long after he was brought to us, he met his match....the following morning Lawrence was no more.  Not wanting to tell his previous owners though, every time they asked about Lawrence we would cross our fingers behind our back and tell them how well Lawrence was doing...it just wasn't Lawrence the original, but Lawrence the prodigy!!!!!