Recently, we secured a large Rhode Island Red rooster from a neighbor homesteader. He had too many and we needed a start to our next set of chickens, which are planned to be Rhode Island Reds. Since this rooster towered over all the other chickens and roosters we had, even making the full grown Oreo and Donald look small, and since he was very red, we called him Ole Red. Well Ole Red was from a chicken pen where there were nothing but large breed chickens.
So when Ole Red was placed in our yard he immediately decided he was going to be king of the yard. The only problem with Ole Red’s plan was he never figured that the smaller Bantam roosters would be a challenge for him. Boy was he wrong. As soon as Ole Red reared up to show the first contender who was boss he found out that it isn’t the size of the fighter but the size of the fight inside the fighter that matters.
Well the first Bantam rooster decided that Ole Red was just way to much. The second Bantam to challenge him got a few good punches in but quickly decided Ole Red wasn’t worth his time as well, he ran like a chicken. Well we have six Bantam roosters so there were still four more that Ole Red had to show who the boss was. We watched and waited as nature took its course in the chicken realm. Soon there would be a new “big man” of the chicken yard and we watched in anticipation as to who the title would go to.
Problem number two that Ole Red failed to realize is that, not all Bantam roosters are created equally. Contender number three stepped up to the plate and that was the last thing Ole Red remembered before having his butt handed to him on a silver platter! Bantam challenger number three was a rooster who we like to call Jet Li. Well ole Jet Li was the yard’s biggest Bantam and the rooster in charge before Ole Red’s time.
Again Ole Red miscalculated the size of the Bantams. Well Jet Li put a whoopin on Ole Red like you never saw! Before the fight was over Ole Red had suffered cuts on his cone and was bleeding quite a bit. Jet Li had to hop about two feet to get to Ole Red’s cone but he did that like it was no challenge. Shortly after the fight Jet Li gave ownership of the yard to Ole Red, but it didn’t come without a lesson. Its not how big the rooster is on the outside that matters. Its how big he is on the inside that counts.
Although Jet Li won that fight I believe that out of pure pity he gave the yard over to Ole Red. To this day all six of our Bantam roosters and Ole Red stay to themselves. There has been a few times where I had to show Ole Red who the boss of the chicken yard truly is but then again every bully has his time and his time to fall. I am sure we haven’t seen the last of Jet Li. After dishing out a whoopin like that I am sure he can walk around and know inside who is in charge even though Ole Red still thinks it’s him.