Chester the Hen: What's Really Going On?

This post was provoked by e-friend Cherie Bowser's cute and well-intentioned essay:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9102293/chester_has_learned_that_love_knows.html?cat=44

These things do happen. However, close, objective observation does not support the conclusions the homosexual lobby would like to draw from a casual glance at Chester the Hen.

(For the record, although this blog does not support hate, no currently active member of this blog believes the homosexual lobby is serving the highest good of anybody.)

Does Chester the Hen really think she was meant to be a rooster? Not likely. Chickens are very social birds. Hens like to have a rooster in the flock. After a few months of unrelieved sisterhood, one or more hens, usually the older or less fertile members of the flock, will try to take over the rooster's position in the family. One of the rooster's "jobs" is to act tough when challenged, and since none of the hens is really satisfied by the attempts of a "crowing hen" to compensate, she probably will be challenged.

I've watched a "crowing hen" catch the first sight of an actual rooster. Far from demanding her "rights" to imitate a rooster, the "crowing hen" instantly remembers her actual gender and rushes out to display it, begging the rooster to join her flock!

What about Jiffy the Rooster? When his son came back from visiting the hens at a neighbor's farm (ours), Jiffy seemed to mistake the other rooster for a hen! He went out to greet his son with the same wing-trailing display and "come on" calls with which roosters greet hens. Neither rooster was confused about his gender, nor were Jiffy's eyes failing. Between roosters, this greeting was a challenge to display machismo with a long, elaborate fight...one of the ritual fights in which both birds displayed their strength, agility, and plumage, but neither was hurt. The fight ended in a draw, with a hen jumping in to break it up. Instead of hitting her back, the roosters remembered whom they were trying to impress, and turned their attention toward the hens.

Chickens are among many animal species who use cross-gender behavior to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Chester the Hen's peek through human glasses made a cute picture, but I suspect that what the poor lonely bird is really trying to say is, "I want to be Hester the Hen. We need a mate."