Steve Davis was driving near his home on Monday, March 21, when he came upon two roosters standing in the middle of the Vermont dirt road.
He didn't know where they came from, but he did know they didn't belong there and was pretty sure someone who didn't want the roosters anymore just let them go.
Two days later, the roosters were still there. Steve posted his frustration in a local social media group.
"To the person or persons that dropped off two roosters in the middle of nowhere up on Hallstrom rd. I'm very disappointed in you as a member of the human race. They've been there two days now in the same spot that you let them go, and I can't think of another reason they would be there."
Steve's post opened a flood gate of reactions and comments.
The general consensus was that the abandoning party couldn't deal with roosters and possibly didn't expect to have any when ordering baby chicks.
Unfortunately, while many places offer to sell only female chicks, it is nearly impossible to guarantee that one or two won't be males. Reproductive organs of both female and male chicks are internal, and even seasoned handlers of chickens can't always name the gender.
While Steve was getting lots of moral support, no one in the group had yet come up with a solution, so on Tuesday, March 23, Steve told the group his plan to pick up the roosters.
"I'll go trap them tomorrow. Don't know what I'll do with them, but they'll be fed at least. Grandson likes chickens, lol."
Steve drove down to find the roosters right in the same place on the road they had been for two days now. First, he fed them, but he told the group that he could only get "within a couple of feet but wasn't fast enough to catch them."
There are plenty of resources to help a family who winds up needing to give up their chickens, all of which offer better solutions than abandoning them on the road.
One group member argued that they had just wandered off from their home. But Steve retorted, "they don't stray a half-mile from any building then stay in that one spot for two days."
Scott Waterman, Communications Director at Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, directed Compass Vermont to a guide for caring for chickens and also recommended Backyard Chickens as a good resource.
On Wednesday, March 24, a couple reported to the group that they had "stopped to help a group of neighbors wrangle them up yesterday. Not only are the chickens safe in a good home now, but we got to meet some of our neighbors and had fun chasing two chickens through the snow and mud and brush. Well done, neighbors!"
Concluding the rooster odyssey on a humorous note, one of the helping neighbors briefly reflected on the difficulty of rounding up roosters." The amount of times we dove or fell into the snow was ridiculous!!"
