Monday, October 06, 2008

Why raising chickens can be fun...

One morning the children and I were starting our home school day, Yekwanaman was starting his language studies, when we heard such a terrible sound! I can not describe it very well. It was weird.

Now, we were accustomed to hearing strange sounds in the village, witch doctors, old Sanema ladies fighting, children running and screaming, but this sound was unique! We all went out to investigate. The sound was coming from our chicken pen.

We tried several times to raise our own poultry. We did. But...between the ocelots and the vampire bats...we were not very successful at it. It seemed we were raising chickens to feed all the wild kingdom of the jungle but ourselves! Still, we tried!

Upon arriving at the chicken pen, we saw our rooster strutting his stuff! He was crowing like it was dawn, only, really off tune!!! And Loud. All the poor hens had their chicks off in a corner under their wings! Daddy Rooster was acting strangely!

We stood and watched for a half hour as this guy, danced around in circles, screaming his head off in what seemed to be a riotous crowing, until... he suddenly jerked himself straight, and toppled over! Stone cold!

We thought he had died of a heart attack! But, no, a few hours later, he was up on his feet, but a bit wobbly. Every time the other chickens clucked, he would bellow in rage! As much as a rooster can bellow!

It seems another missionary working with us at the time had decided to give our chickens a rotten pineapple. Fermented, none the less!

Have you ever seen a drunken roster?

The next day, we heard the rooster once again crowing loudly in the middle of the afternoon. We saw the other missionary walking by the pen with more scraps for the chickens. This time there were no fermented pineapples, but the rooster seemed quite eager to receive one!

After pecking through the scraps, he indignantly, clucked about angrily. I swear I saw him looking out of the corner of his eye with an, "I'll get you!" look at the other missionary!

From that time on, that missionary could not enter the chicken pen without being attacked! Unless he had a pineapple!

I am embarrassed to say that someone in my family would purposely save pineapples and allow them to ferment, just to see the rooster get drunk! Grant it, it was great entertainment for the whole village to watch the drunk rooster! But I always felt a bit sinful, aiding the guy in his binges!!!

21 comments:

CrimeSceneFairy said...

Aw! Ocelots look cute!!
lol
Wow that's funny! I didn't know roosters could be drunk!

Saur♥Kraut said...

Oh my gosh, I laughed out loud so hard that I started coughing!!!

And...ocelots? Vampire bats? WOW. You DO have an exciting life!

Anonymous said...

Drunk Rooster, indeed. All I can say is that it is a good thing that you don’t live in California. The State SPCA wants to “entitle” livestock and poultry to a “minimum standard” in living conditions. For example, egg-producing hens need a living room, separate bedrooms, and a wide-screen television. This is so that they can be happy before an illegal alien from Tyson Foods wrings their necks. Now under this proposal, I imagine the penalty for providing fermented pineapples to underage roosters could be a serious offense.

Naturally, the next shoe to drop will be chickens organizing themselves, forming unions, and withholding eggs for even more perks. And soon, the Cows with Guns
Video at YouTube will come true. Then we’ll all be sorry.

Nina in Portugal said...

Drunk Roosters....that was great!!!

Tori Leslie said...

Oh wow, how funny. I think I prefer my calm and civilized life in Croatia to yours!
Have a great week!

~Karen_ said...

That's too funny! :-D

Brooke said...

An alcoholic rooster! LOL! *:)

The Drunken Rooster sounds like a good name for a tavern...

Ottavio (Otto) Marasco said...

Dropped stone cold and no doubt woke up with a hangover...

No cannot say I've seen a drunk rooster... but it sounds like a lot of fun in your part of the world though ...

Mustang: Hope the wide screen is a Plasma...

Take care everyone!

MightyMom said...

so did you start an Alcoholics Anonymous group for the rooster??

redneck preacher said...

No problem JM don't feel guilty. We used to do the same for Uncle Frank.

Beats TV

HTOITA

MaMa Vaughn said...

That is so funny!=)

Z said...

Wonderful story!! They should have stuck a little paper umbrella in that pineapple!

JM, would you please email me? I emailed you and the darned thing came back...thanks!!

Gayle said...

ROTF! That's too cute! I can just picture those poor cowering chickens trying to protect their young from what they considered one very deranged rooster. LOL!

Unknown said...

An all time favorite Jungle Jolly of mine!
Did you hear the news that Ecuador is trying to pass rights for animals equal to human rights?
Now which family member saved those Pineapples for fermentation? That's what I'd like to know!
I'm about to email you! Can't wait for your response.

Brenda said...

Thats a great story! I really wish I could have seen that. The best we ever did was a drunk bird. I will have to post that story and link to you :)

WomanHonorThyself said...

bok bok!..ha

Gigi said...

Now I've heard everything! THAT is too funny!!

MathewK said...

Oh JM, you always have the whackiest stories.

Thanks for sharing that.

Always On Watch said...

Have you ever seen a drunken roster?

When I was growing up, we had chickens and a grape arbor. Inevitably, quite a few grapes ended up on the ground, where they fermented.

One particular hen was hilarious when she got tipsy. She was ditsy enough sober, but when she got drunk, look out!

Thursday's Child said...

Pam, I heard someone call in to Alan Colmes radio show (a rerun if you listen free online) and ask how Sarah Palin can be pro-life but not be as concerned about animals' lives as much as humans'. {shakes head in disbelief}

Jungle Mom, that's hilarious. Remind me to tell you about the dead chicken duck taped to our German Shepherd.

groovyoldlady said...

I wonder if that works with hamsters...