We are getting ready to go on vacation over Labor Day and don’t really have anyone who can come over twice a day to let the chickens in and out. Since we haven’t had any problems with predators this season, we decided to experiment with leaving them out all night. It sure would be mighty convenient if we could go on vacation and not worry about our birds!
Well, the experiment went well for the first few nights. But then, we got a nighttime visitor–we think it was a fox. He snuck in at about 3:30 AM. The rooster crowed, and crowed, and crowed some more. The dog (in the house with us) barked an alarm. My husband got up and turned on the outside light, and even shined a spotlight in the direction of the chicken coop. Trouble is, the coop is a bit further away than the range of the light. Normally he would have gone out–because trouble was certainly brewing–but for some reason he decided not to (maybe because it was 3:30 in the morning?).
Needless to say, in the morning, we were rooster-less.
I wondered aloud to my husband, “Why do they always go after the roosters?” But then I answered my own question: “Well, no…the roosters always go after them.”
I always mourn the loss of a rooster, because they are the protectors of the hens. They run toward danger, not away from it. If something is threatening our flock of birds, the rooster sacrifices his own life to save the lives of others. Sounds melodramatic, I know–but it’s true.
An interesting thing that I also noticed is that once the rooster is gone, the hens scatter. Where once they all stayed in a group under his watchful eye (and dangerous spurs), now the hens wander about aimlessly–not even in a protective group any more. Whereas they normally stay in the back or side yard and can find plenty of food there, now they are as far away as our front field or the lean-to behind the garage. We even find them in the garage!
Each time we lose one of our “heroes,” it causes me to reflect upon how fathers serve a similar function in the family; they are the spiritual “roosters!” It is a father’s job to keep out the wolves of false teaching, to shelter his children enough so that their growing faith is protected, and to insure that family remains as one, with a common purpose.
Lest you think that I mean any disrespect for single moms, or discount the efforts of those mothers who carry a significant part of the burden for their families–I don’t. Moms have to do what the dads can’t or don’t. In fact, one of the only hens we’ve ever lost was the Momma Hen who was protecting her chicks. She ran right toward the attacker–next in line after the rooster. Both of them were the only casualties on that occasion.
In any case, losing a rooster causes me to reflect, with admiration, on my own husband’s role in our family. He is at the forefront of our common pursuit of the things of God. When I am weak, he is strong for me. He faithfully instructs our children in God’s Word and lives a life of example–even in the humility of confessing his own failures. And when the enemy attacks, he is steadfast in prayer and in the Word of God. He would rather that he bear the brunt of an attack (spiritual or physical) than that one of us should be vulnerable.
That’s why I’m always a little sad when we lose one of our roosters.