Noncluck

Noticing a nonbark or more specifically a noncluck. I heard a rooster crowing just now, distant and barely audible. Reminded me of what’s missing. From 2012 to 2016 several neighbors started keeping chickens. Typically I heard three or four competing roosters in the morning, each trumpeting the superiority of his flock.

Now most have given up, leaving only the one committed urban farmstead.

I’ve got chickens on the mind lately, listening to a unique farm quiz show at bedtime. It was produced by a branch of Quaker Oats, advertising Ful-O-Pep Chick Starter and Ful-O-Pep Calf Starter pellets. The winning question each time won a 100-lb bag of Chick Starter, which automatically limited the questioners to serious chicken farmers. (A good hint for pollsters who want to pick out a specific group!) The studio audience included lots of farm wives who understood life. They knew how men worked, how women worked, how chickens worked, and how cows worked.

The question in one episode was “Do hens cackle before or after laying?” The wives said that hens cackle at various times, not necessarily before laying. One quoted a proverb:

When a hen cackles you can’t tell if she’s laying or lying.

The proverb is Ful-O-Wisdom. Social animals are PROUD of reproducing, and social animals are also constantly deceiving their opponents.

Like most non-network radio shows, this show also featured excellent music by an organist who knew how to articulate.

= = = = =

After writing about the committed urban farmstead I decided to look at it. It’s not on my Minimum Daily Required Walk. I’ve passed it a couple times in recent Supersize Luxury Walks but didn’t stop to look. I stopped and looked. The cars are different, the carefully tended crops are gone, and the chickens are gone. The back yard is now Ful-O-Weeds and Ful-O-RVs. In other words the place is now a committed urban methstead.

= = = = =

Later, located the rooster I was hearing. It’s at a house that has always kept tropical birds in a sort of aviary. Not one of the recent chicken keepers.