Big Boy and Extra Crispy
We had several variety of chickens on our farm. Chickens are very pretty birds, especially the bantams which come in many colors and varieties. Chickens are shown in competitions and some are worth a great deal of money. Like most animals, chickens have their own personalities.
Two of the roosters I remember the best were Big Boy, a White Jersey Giant. This is a very big chicken when grown and Big Boy was the largest giant breed rooster we have ever seen. Big Boy was gentle and tame. He followed us around the yard whenever we were out. He would eat from your hand. He'd eat cat food and dog food. The cats and dogs would not mess with him because of his size. You could pick him up and carry him around. He loved to be petted. He was just a sweet, affectionate bird. Our whole family enjoyed having him around and were sorry when he died.
Extra Crispy, was a Dominique. Dominiques are an old breed of chicken and until recent efforts to bring their numbers back were considered rare. All roosters can get testy and show the normal cock behavior. However, Extra Crispy was just plain mean. And, he was mean to everyone all of the time. He was always fighting anything-cats, dogs, roosters and he was relentlessly mean to the hens. I got so I did not like to feed the chickens because the mean bird would attack me. I was cut by his spurs a couple of times. I named him Extra Crispy because every time I had to deal with him, I thought about frying him.
Extra Crispy was kept inside the pen with the hens. Big Boy was so heavy, he was injuring them, so we left him outside and gave him free range of the farm.
Feeding time each morning went something like this: I'd get the feed, open the door and immediately was attacked by Extra Crispy. I'd yell and holler threats while fighting him off so I could tend to the food and water troughs and collect the eggs.
I guess one day, Big Boy got tired of it. He came running to see what I was hollering about. He saw Extra Crispy on me and immediately jumped on him, pushing him to the other end of the stall. After that day, every time I fed the chickens, Big Boy would go with me and keep that hateful rooster at bay until I shut the door. Then I'd open it up a little, say his name and he'd come on out with me.
We had to take Extra Crispy out of the coop with the hens because he was harassing them so much. I didn't want to cull him so I hoped putting him in the yard would calm him down. Extra Crispy had learned to leave Big Boy alone by this time.
Being out in the yard did seem to calm him some, but Extra Crispy made a fatal mistake one day. Upon seeing my 2 year old daughter, Amanda, playing about an acre away from him, he ran towards her, jumped on her and scratched her up and down her back even tearing her shirt. I was nearby, but my 4 year old son, Brandon, was closer. He started fighting the rooster off of his sister until I got there. Big Boy and I arrived about the same time, so Big Boy fought him away while I checked Amanda's injuries. It took her a few years to grow out of her fear of chickens. I had the same thing happen to me as a child and it is very frightening.
When Clint came up the drive that day, he saw me with an axe in hand going after Extra Crispy. He asked me just what I was doing. I showed him the doctored rips up and down Amanda's back and the pecks on her head. There was no way we could allow that nasty rooster to live with him being such a danger to small children. Everyone we knew that could take him had small children of their own. No one wanted a rooster that was so vicious. When Clint saw the marks on Amanda's back, he took the axe and Extra Crispy lived up to his name.