Merle
First and foremost, I want to thank my thoughtful husband of 45 years for covering for me last month. He did so without me even asking. I want to share a quick story about “Ronnie’s Best Friend, Lassie.”
My mother was born and raised in the same holler where Ronnie was born and grew up…Red Hill. I loved to go to Gramma Fulk’s for lots of reasons a couple of which were I loved my gramma, I got to play with my cousins, and her house was built next to a creek and not too far from the “big river”. My gramma didn’t drive or swim, but on some summer days we would pester her enough that she would take us to the river. We walked. Our walk went by Ronnie’s home. I didn’t know him at the time, but I knew he was the luckiest little boy I’d ever heard of. He had a “Lassie dog” and a pony! Who knew that one day I’d end up being “the luckiest woman in Rockingham County because I married him!” that’s according to him!
Merle
Years ago, if you would have told me that chickens can be “pets” I would have given you a look that said you’ve lost your mind. That was before I hatched eggs as a class project for my students and met my Olive. She won my heart.
Merle is a rooster who’s lived most of his life with just two hens who made him very happy because he kept them very happy. Sounds like a good relationship. The only problem? Merle outlived his girls. Diana, my friend, came to me and asked if I knew anyone who had hens for sale. Since I feel like the Fulks Run Branch of the SPCA and Save Them All, this was not an odd request. My first stop was my family and sure enough, my cousin had a pen full of different aged hens that were up for adoption. I arranged to meet Diana at my cousin’s to pick up two hens. Merle’s new brides were chosen and taken to his home for the nuptials.
I gave it a few hours and called Diana to see how things were going.
She informed me that Merle was in love! She also told me that she observed some behavior that she thought was unusual. One of Merle’s favorite foods was bits of white cheddar cheese. Diana had taken him some, but instead of eating it, he would pick it up and then bob his head up and down and drop it in front of his two new brides. I told her I’d never seen that behavior. She and I wondered if it was normal, so off to the resources I went. It turns out that this is normal behavior for normal Merles. It’s called tidbitting and is considered a specific courtship behavior to attract hens. It includes clucking noises, moving his head and neck and picking up and dropping small pieces of food in hopes that the hens will join him. It appears that the movement of his comb and wattles are qualities that hens look for in their males. Why? They attract the hens. The rooster will let the hens eat first and only eat what they leave. This ensures that his hens are healthy and will give him strong offspring.
With further reading I learned that almost every rooster behavior has one purpose…to provide strong thriving offspring so that the rooster’s line will continue.
Roosters protect the hens, even giving their lives against predators to give the hens a chance to escape. Hens favor roosters with a large red comb with tall points. Evenly formed wattles and long spurs along with long, shiny colorful hackle and saddle feathers are outward signs to the hens that the roosters are healthy.
If this all seems a bit far-fetched, believe it. It is true.
Now that you know about Merle, I’d like to tell you about Olive and her friends. In 2020 when I retired from teaching, I owned a very special black lab. His name was Memphis and he was my first classroom theory dog. He went with me to school every other day and stayed with me and my students all day long. I cannot begin to tell you about the impact he had on my students and students in our school. Sadly, he died in May of 2020 because of something I did. No details, just know that I blame myself to this day for his death. I miss him still. The days following his death were some of the toughest I’ve ever spent. He was my “bests friend” He went with me everywhere. He was beside me 24 hours a day if possible. His death left a huge hole in my life. To those of you who don’t have pets, I sound crazy and you’re probably thinking, “Get over it”. For those of us who have “best friends” of the nonhuman kind, you understand. I had my baby Branch and Briar, at the time, one year old lab pups, but there was still a huge whole. When I was with Briar and Branch, I loved on them, but another healing part of my life was found in watching my chicks grow. I had hatched a dozen of them from eggs and loved to watch them develop. One of my favorites was Olive, named so because she was an “olive egger” hatched from and olive colored egg. She had personality. The chicks were kept in my basement and moved from one pen to a bigger pen until they were old enough to go outside. Olive missed nothing. She was the nosiest chicken I’ve ever met and the most loving. She wanted to know what was going on and would be the first to reach the top of her enclosure just to see what I was doing. Many times, I’d turn around and there she sat with her head cocked to the side trying to figure out just what I was doing. When we moved them to the outside pen, she would follow me everywhere I went. When I was installing ground netting to keep predators from digging up into the pen, I’d be crouched down on my knees and Olive would be sitting right between my kneecaps watching.
Due to things beyond my control, we had to give up our chickens. I tried to find special homes for all of them. For Olive, my dear sweet friend Sheree and her family took Olive. Olive loved it there. She was soon doing tricks for Sheree’s children and following them around like a puppy.
I’ve always believed that animals respond to how they are treated and there is no such creature as a “mean” animal”. It is man that creates the mean!
Keep on loving your critters and Best Friends!
Stay Pawsitive!
Cammie
