An interesting morning with the chooks before work. After I'd let the chickens out I heard a loud squawking in the coop. I stepped over in time to see one of the Reds being ridden by one of the... well, they're too old to call them chicks now. I guess you could compare it to a teenaged boy with an older woman in a John Hughes movie.

Here's the interesting thing. It wasn't Rocky, the Roo-In-Training. And it wasn't Jean-Bob, who is starting to look properly roosterly. No, it was another of the Rhodies.

So I did a little research. I caught the offender and looked it over, thinking perhaps it was a dominance thing. Then I compared it to the third Rhodie chick from the Tractor Supply batch. Compared to the third, it was bigger, and had wattles and a comparitively large comb - like Rocky's, only with more "fingers" that were more evenly defined (Rocky's is kind of naturally ragged looking). Add to that the obvious sexual trait I witnessed this morning, and I think it's pretty obvious that I have another roo.

In honor of the occasion (my wife said she's heard this act referred to as "flogging the hen," but she can't recall which side of her family she heard it from), I decided to dub the new roo-apparent Roger, after, um, a British slang term for the very act of genetic congress that I witnessed him performing.

There was another barnyard surprise yesterday. This week the four Reds have pretty consistently produced three eggs a day. I was hoping they'd finish out the week like that, but started thinking that I was overdue for a two egg day. So I went out yesterday to collect and... four eggs.

I guess they're all laying now. And when I was out this morning, the one hen I thought was the slacker was waiting for her turn in the nest box. By the time I was done with barn chores, there were two hens in the box, waiting for nature to take its course.

Farm life: just full of surprises.