Monday, 17 June 2013

Rooster Bend on Wattle Grove Road

So, down here people have chickens. And no roosters. Well, maybe one or two roosters to keep the girls in line. And to make little chickens. Cute little fluffy, cheepy chics. Awww. Then some of them grow into roosters. That nobody wants. Some people sell them, some people put them in the pot and some people dump them in the bush. All over Tasmania you come across the common sight of one or two roosters bachelor padding it in the relatively low risk, low predator Tassie bush. On the way up to our house there is a bend in the road that contains the biggest rooster bachelor pad I have seen to date. 12 roosters and counting. They aren't multiplying, as Farmer Geoff says, they're "recruiting". A gang of rough and tough, spur-ladden roosters hanging out on the side of the road. People chuck them food from their cars (roosters don't eat chips people!) and one or two kind-hearted (and I'm guessing, vegetarian) neighbours supply them with bowls of water and some grain. The native hens (or turbo-chooks as commonly known) hang around also and I wonder if a cross breed is inevitable...


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