It is a point of popular opinion that chickens are rather dumb creatures, and while I may or may not agree with that assessment – kinda depending on the day – it is a fact that a good cockerel is more than anything a gentleman…er, or fowl.
Every morning I open the door to the chicken coop and every morning as the ladies scramble out over each other, clamouring for the precious grain they’ve been thinking about all night, Alec Baldwin – the rooster! – saunters out, surveys the situation, eyes me learily as if to confirm for himself every morning anew that I have no designs upon his charges and only after all his ladies have begun eating, does he take his own turn. He doesn’t push them out of the way or impose himself, but instead just sits back and makes sure the hens are happy, healthy, and ready for his reproductive advances. Now, there have been occasions when I’ve had to scold Alec for not having all the ladies back at the coop in time for dinner, but in general he takes his role very seriously.
Which is a good thing…because otherwise, were he to prove nothing but a lay-about lout, he may just end up in the soup pot. He has clearly seen the future, and he wants nothing to do with it!
Mutton Monologues 