When your hen's a he

Rehoming one of the flock.

Each of the chicks I’ve raised since early spring had a 10-20 percent chance of turning out to be a rooster. That’s the “gender accuracy” given by the hatchery. It’s notoriously difficult to sex baby chicks, so an 80-90 percent accuracy rate is actually pretty good.

Ours is a flock of barred Plymouth Rocks, bearing feathers “barred” in black and white, for an overall effect of thick, salt-and-pepper stripes, an Oreo pattern, if you will. One morning the bird with the brightest feathers, whom I named Double Stuff for that reason, issued forth a call that seemed a bit like… a cockle-doodle-do.

Forget Waldo. Where’s Double Stuff?