Trautman Stories - The Rooster

Facing the chicken house was a brooder house. The building was a wooden half circle on it’s side, with the flat floor sited directly on the ground. It had windows on the ends, plus a door in the end closest to the chicken house. The brooder house radius was only about 6 feet, by maybe ten feet long. It was for raising baby chicks to be butchered later. In the open, 15 feet distance between the two buildings, the chickens were fed and watered.

The brooder house hadn’t been used for several months. Chick droppings had long since dried out and morphed into part of the dry dust that coated the walls. A thick layer of old droppings, feed, corncob bedding and simple dirt covered the warped board floor.

White Leghorn, like we had.

There was a rooster who chased us. We were told not to run, since he would not chase us then. It was very hard to avoid running when I felt he was going to attack me. Flight was the only logical answer, since I knew in my six year old mind, I couldn’t fight him.

One afternoon, when Kay and Jimmy were playing in the brooder house, I went to join them. I was excited to play there, and wasn’t able to keep adult warnings about running by the rooster in my six year old brain. Sure enough, as I ran past the chicken house to the brooder house, the rooster took up pursuit!

I ran into the brooder house and slammed the screen door behind me. Kay and Jimmy said they would hide me so the rooster wouldn’t get me. I was anxious for that, because I didn’t want to be pecked to death!

There was a chicken crate in the brooder house. A chicken crate is a slatted box that opens on the top. Chickens are held inside. The slats are too close together for them to squeeze through the spaces. The crate’s dimensions are, approximately, two feet high, three feet long, and two feet deep.

Kay and Jimmy told me to get into the chicken crate, which they quickly covered with an old rag rug that had been outside much too long. Covering me ensured that the rooster couldn’t see me and get me. I crouched down, grateful for the selfless protection offered by my sister and brother.

After sitting hunched over for a time, I asked if the rooster was gone. No, they told me, he was still circling the brooder house, looking for me. So I waited. I could hear Jimmy and Kay playing some kind of game, but I don’t know what it was.

Although I couldn’t see out, my fevered, rear-fueled imagination visualized the rooster stalking the brooder house. He went around and around, slowly, looking for any opportunity to attack me. The rooster carefully lifted up one foot, pausing to cock his head from one side to another, reconoitering for any indication of my presence, replaced that foot on the ground, and lifted the other one, going through the same process. It was only through the loving care and protection of Kay and Jimmy that I was not being pecked to death at that very minute!

I laid on my right side, I laid on my left side. “Is the rooster still out there?” “Yes, he is. You better not come out yet.”

I laid on my back, I laid on my stomach. “Is the rooster still out there?” “Yeah. Don’t come out!” A giggle may have followed that.

I don’t know how long I stayed in that dirty crate, under that smelly, musty, dusty rug. It seemed like hours. I think I stayed there until Jimmy and Kay left. I’ll bet the rooster left long before that.