We’re counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. I saw this fellow in our yard today. Does he get counted, too?
This fine boy is named Duchess. He’s our resident rooster, the protector of “the gals,” my 9 hens.
Duchess’ father was named Princess. Princess was a Golden Sex Link breed, which means the boys are most definitely black-colored and the girls are most definitely yellow-colored. When we got the (all yellow) chicks, I told our children that they could each choose a chick of their own. Our (then) 7yo daughter chose a pretty yellow chick and named it Princess.
Princess grew. She grew taller than the other chicks. Bigger. Bolder. Still, we denied Princess’ masculinity until the day we actually saw him throw his head back and let out a crow. What a shocking day that was!
We tried to call him Prince after that, but by then the first name was stuck in our heads. So I began introducing him as “Princess, our drag queen rooster.”
A year or two later, Princess had a son. Our neighbor’s thought it all so funny that they called the son Duchess. And so he is named.
He absolutely counts in the bird watch, he is not chopped liver you know!
Samantha
[...] such a teeny rooster. Not a bit like Duchess, our big boy, who would never be able to go on Little Gal’s head unless he stood on one leg, [...]