Cock-a-doodle-who?

Remember our chicks we got in May? They're getting pretty big now. I don't have any pictures of ours, but here are some of the same breed. Chad bought 15 females since all we really wanted was eggs...not necessarily chicks. One died and 14 survived.

Two mornings ago I was dreaming one of my regularly incoherent dreams (something about following a brick, winding pathway with some kids through some kind of temple grounds to visit the prophet and seeing a sunbather up ahead - and thinking that is really inappropriate!) when I heard a strange noise. It took a couple or 3 times to realize that I really was hearing it. I stumbled from bed, glanced at the clock (which was just shy of 6 AM) and went to the window.

Each time I heard it I was trying to eliminate what animals might be making the sound. I first suspected the calves and then decided it wasn't them. Maybe the lambs? No. Is it...could it be the chickens? By the time I'd decided it was coming from their pen and now I need to hear it to figure out what they were doing, it stopped! I was thinking...Dumb hens; someone thinks she's a rooster! And a sad sounding rooster at that. It sounded like a wounded and dieing lamb. (I never did get back to sleep.)

So I went out to the chicken coop later that day. No, we didn't have a rooster. Rather, we have 2 roosters! I had been thinking that some of them were growing faster than others, but what once looked like an early bloomer a few weeks ago now looks decidedly like a rooster. Twice.

Apparently, they are just getting old enough to crow. I hope they figure it out soon. A day-break wake up call is bad enough - the dieing lamb sound is pathetic!