Meet Cornelius

Cock of the Walk

Our rooster - Cornelius. He is a gorgeous bird! He wakes us up every morning before the sun comes up and crows off and on throughout the day. Cornelius is the son of Gladys (a Rhode Island Red) and Barnge (an Auracana). Last summer we lost our most wonderful dog, Robo. Robo used to protect the chickens and after he died the wild life moved in incredibly quickly. The week after Robo died we lost three chickens to a coyote, including Barnge (named after Matt's brother Andrew's pretend character). At first we thought it was a fox, but after the Thelma incident we were pretty sure a coyote was the culprit. Gladys disappeared and we were so upset - assuming a predator got her. A couple days later, our neighbor said there was a chicken in her bushes. I asked if it was Gladys but Maria hadn't asked the hen it's name. It was indeed Gladys and she was in the bushes sitting on five eggs. So we moved her and her eggs to a bin to protect them and about 3 weeks later two of Gladys' eggs hatched. They were adorable chicks and Gladys did a great job raising them. When the two roosters grew up they were too much for the chickens and the white rooster became dinner and the red rooster became Cornelius. The same day we decided to keep only one rooster, our new puppy, Ouzo got hold of Cornelius. I heard chicken wales and saw Ouzo over the side of the hill with Cornelius in his mouth. So once again I go running like a crazy lady after the dog yelling and screaming. I was able to get Cornelius out of the dog's mouth and other than a couple very small wounds on his back and neck he was just fine. We still have hopes that when Ouzo grows up he will protect the chickens like Robo did but right now he still wants to eat them.