Scottie the Rooster, Who Was Loved

The text message was brief, yet it cut into my heart.

I was sitting in a board meeting, high up in a skyscraper, wearing a dress & heels — but my heart was immediately transported to my farm.  It is always a neat trick for me to step away from the farm, however, my role as a board member for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation is very important to me.  I consider it a great privilege to represent farmers from Central Ohio on the board.  I love the opportunity to use my mind, and to serve as an advocate for agriculture.  Mentally, it is always good for me to take a couple days away from the chaos of my much-loved unruly creatures.  When something goes wrong, though, all I want is to be back home.

Elsa & Kayla were managing chores that day, and I had complete confidence in their abilities with the animals — as well as their understanding that anything out of the ordinary means they immediately reach out to me.  Their reports that day had been positive thus far, allowing me to focus more fully on my board responsibilities.  Until I received the text which read, “I just found Scottie dead by the corn field.”

We take in a LOT of roosters.  As backyard chickens have become more popular, many beginning chicken farmers have learned that adorable chicks can quickly grow into loud roosters.  In the space of ten days in October, I received six different requests to take in roosters.  This told me that spring chicks must have hit maturity, and the inevitable rooster in every batch of “female” chicks was now annoying neighbors with his manly crowing.  I keep more roosters than a lot of poultry farmers, as I rely on them to help protect my hens.  We deal with far too many predators.  A rooster will not necessarily fight a hawk, or a fox, or a raccoon.  They will raise the alarm, though, if a predator is sighted, thus giving the ladies time to run to safety.

My rule is that if a rooster gets along well with others, he will likely live out a good life here at the farm.  If he begins assaulting humans or the hens, however, he becomes chicken dinner.  If a rooster and a hen are romancing, that is acceptable.  Some roosters, though, will form gangs and rape hens — even to the point of killing the hen.  I will not tolerate that, nor will I keep a rooster who is mean to a human child.  I jokingly refer to this as “Harrison Farm Justice”: roosters are welcome to stay if they contribute to our peaceable kingdom, but they become chicken dinner if they rape or assault.

Scottie the Rooster came to the farm because he needed a home.  Two things immediately struck us about Scottie: his memorable appearance and his comfort level with humans.  Scottie embraced Goat Yoga, and amazed me with his desire to hang out with humans on yoga mats.  With a handsome rooster who was comfortable with people, he quickly became a favorite with the Harrison Farm team.  He posed for Instagram photos with Dana, hung out every Monday with Hannah, found a protector in Elsa, and chose Justine as his very favorite human.  If Justine was at the farm, Scottie was in her arms nearly all the time.  He sat on her shoulder during events, she carried him while walking the dogs, and she secretly fed him bites of lasagna during my birthday party.  In an effort to protect Scottie, I began trimming the feathers around his eyes so his vision would not be impaired.  And every time I walked through the poultry area, I would look for him to reassure myself he was fine.  With so many of the people I love having become enamored with Scottie, I was paranoid that something bad might happen to him.  And then it did

.Predators are a brutal reality of farming.  You can put abundant time, love, and money into animals — and then a predator can show up and kill at its whim.  I want to live in peace with wildlife, but I will protect the animals in my care to the best of my ability.  Sometimes this means running outside in my bathrobe when I hear the roosters raise the alarm that a hawk is hunting them.  Sometimes this means shooting a coyote which has invaded the Sheep Lot and is eyeing the lambs.  Sometimes this means staking out a mink that is killing my ducks.  But no matter how hard I try, the predators are often lethal.  As difficult as it is for me to carry this burden, it hits much harder when a predator attacks an animal that is beloved by one of my young farmers.

That afternoon, Elsa & Kayla had gone looking for Scottie to introduce him to the campers who were staying at the farm.  Instead, they found a pile of feathers — and then eventually they located what remained of Scottie after a hawk attacked him.  The circle of life can be brutal, and I accept this reality as a farmer.  As a mentor, though, I detest the forces of nature which allow predators to kill animals that are loved by my young farmers.  Especially Scottie.  There are many lessons which come from an internship at Harrison Farm: herd health care, product marketing, agritourism business management, food safety, event planning, and a lot of random history facts.  The hardest lesson, though, is often the understanding that the circle of life brings both the joy of birth and the heartbreak of death.  As farmers, we must show respect for this circle of life, even when we want to rage against it.

The young people who are part of Harrison Farm are remarkable individuals.  They showed grace in accepting the loss of Scottie, even as their hearts hurt.  They know the realities: Scottie was a rooster we took in because he needed a home; predators hunt free-range chickens.  But Scottie mattered to us, and he will never be forgotten: not his ridiculous appearance, nor his comfort with humans, nor the intense joy he brought during his time at the farm.  I will continue to run outside when I hear the roosters raise the alarm, no matter how questionably I might be dressed.  I will persevere in supporting the young people I love as they grapple with the harsh realities of the circle of life.  I will remind them that things happen, that you cannot be everywhere at every moment.  You have to take the lessons learned, let the past go, and never cripple yourself with blame.  The living animals need your attention, and beating yourself up is counterproductive.  In my role as mentor, I will tell them to focus on remembering how amazing Scottie was.

And then, on the dark nights when I am alone, I will beat myself up for letting them — and Scottie — down.