My boyfriend George and I live on a 80 acre tree farm in South Jersey. I grew up with pets ranging from lizards all the way to dogs. I really wanted to get a dog but with school and George not liking dog hair, it was out of the picture as of right now. George mentioned one day about getting chickens and I said that it would be another thing for us to take care of beings we already had a whole farm to run.. which also didn't help with me getting a dog now either. About a month later I went outside to get something from my car and I see a big black rooster pecking in the grass in front of the house. I ran inside and told George, "there's a cock outside!", he says "a cock?", "yes a rooster" - I replied back to him. He follows me back out side and says "wow, that's a big black cock" I reply back "that's the nicest black cock I have ever seen". This first sighting is how he got his name, BBC.
A couple of days go by and BBC is being spotted at least once a day in the yard and neither of us know where he's been spending the rest of the day at. George went and got some corn to feed him and set out a little water bowl. We waited until dawn one night and followed him to see where he was going at night to sleep. He was going to the neighbors. He would hangout and eat at our house during the day, and then go sleep at the neighbors across the street. So you ask why does the chicken cross the road? So he could go to sleep, because apparently our trees weren't good enough for him. BBC did this for a few weeks before we decided it was time to build a coop and make him ours. I drew up coop plans and we started to build.
Chicken coop plans
As the coop was in progress we started getting worried about BBC's safety so we decided to put food in one of our sheds in hopes BBC would go in and we could lock him in at nights. at night. After days of coaxing him in with food we finally locked him in there. Days after that he would barely come out, he had now made that his home.
At one point we thought BBC was a hen because he didn't have spurs, he didn't crow when he first showed up, and he loved the nesting box we put in the shed for him. Us being new chicken parents and with some chicken experts input, we deemed BBC as a female. We were devastated mostly because his name was perfect and now it wouldn't be true. We went on with life and finished building the "black mansion" chicken coop.
We finished the coop and now the problem was getting BBC inside the coop and out of the shed. We waited for night fall and george carried him to his new home.
He seemed to really like the new coop that's until we closed down the shed. we thought BBC would go into his new coop by himself just like he had been going into the shed. He didn't. He would walk around the outside of the coop and then run over to the shed. So we gave in like guilty chicken owners and opened up the shed. We waited for him to fall asleep and we once again carried him to the coop this time locking him in there for a couple of days. We all know chickens stay in flocks so our good friends Amy and Robbie gave us two Rhode Island Reds to keep BBC company.
BBC started doing the rooster dance for the females so he definitely had to be a rooster, but we were still confused about the non-crowing and not having spurs. Robbie said he might have come from a cock fighting ring where he might have been the bait chicken. Cock fighting chickens get their spurs and voice boxes removed, which made so much sense since BBC didn't crow. So at this point BBC's story is that he escaped the cock fighting ring and found himself a nice tree farm to retire to. BBC was a new bird once the reds (chicken pot pie and general tos ) arrived. You could tell how much happier he was. He started exploring more with the girls, taking dust baths underneath the magnolia tree, and even roosting.
We had the girls for a few weeks and everything was going great. BBC started protecting them like a rooster should with his hens. I was at school taking one of my last finals and I received a text from George saying "BBCs balls dropped" I opened the video and there it was our baby boy was finally crowing! I was so proud, I shed a tear. We have been waiting for this day and quite honestly we thought it wasn't ever going to come.
BBC now uses his crowing when he wants snacks and George and I aren't paying attention to him. he's also not shy about coming to the front door to ask for snacks. We were happy with our three chickens until we received a text from Amy asking us if we could take another chicken. the text continued to say that a Fed-ex driver ran over one of her chickens, patty, and now Voldemort is alone. Without hesitation I told her of course. we knew these two chickens were their favorites. They raised her along with the other three from a chick and handled her frequently. Voldemort is a true cuddle bug.
Amy, the friend who raised all of our girls
Robbie and Amy would let her nestle in their coats and she absolutely loves it! We are extremely thankful for Robbie and Amy for helping us grow our flock and also answering all the panick filled questions I had being a new chicken owner. They are always reassuring that we are doing a great job. So now we are owners of four chickens, who we absolutely love and we have now become chicken people.
As far as BBC goes, we don't know where he came from or how he got here. But if you ask me I like the story about him escaping from the cock fight ring the best. So that's the story about how we end up with chickens. Now we wouldn't trade chicken life for the world.
If you love this story as much as we do you can purchase a BBC shirt for $25.
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