![Dan 1.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/mariannewest/htR9EF3Z-Dan201.jpg)

<p>I think it is high time that you meet Dan. He is the best rooster I have ever had. Even though I only started raising and tending chickens less than 10 years ago, I have had a lot of roosters during that time.</p>

<p>Mind you, I am not in the business of raising roosters - the main goal of my chicken husbandry is eggs and soil building. I started out, like most, picking up a couple of little chicks from a breeder. She was recommended to me by my Permaculture teacher and had chickens of any size available for sale.</p>

<p>I picked out a few little chicks. They were so cute. How could I not want to bring them home with me.</p>

<p>That was the beginning of many chicken adventures.</p>

<p>Dan was part of the great incubation experiment.</p>

<p>I had borrowed an incubator, bought 40 fertile eggs, and watched the eggs doing their thing. I will write about this experience later.</p>

<p>But what I will tell you now is that when you breed out 40 eggs and they all hatch, you end up with 20 little roosters.</p>

<p>They are very cute until they get to be about 2 months old. By the time they are 4 months, you have a lot of rooster stories to tell!!</p>

<p>And those 20 were just the beginning!</p>

<p>Back to Dan.</p>

<p><img src="https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uptrend/posts/1585883535-50307.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"></p>

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<p>Here he is watching me from a perch while I am opening everything up for them and spreading around some greens.</p>

<p>He is watching me and he is watching some of his girls. Making sure that all is just as it is supposed to be.</p>

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<p><img src="https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uptrend/posts/1585883508-9231.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"></p>

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<p>Dan is doing his duty and has fathered oodles of babies. After my incubation adventure, I decided that it is much easier to let the girls do the work of sitting on the eggs and raising the chicks.</p>

<p>The best part about Dan is that he has never attacked me or any of the kids. Roosters can do a lot of damage. I will never harvest Dan and will be very sad when he gets to the end of his rooster life.</p>

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<p><img src="https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uptrend/posts/1585883877-2866.jpg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"></p>

<p style="text-align: center;">Here he is, looking at you. Don&#39;t think that you can sneak anything by him.</p>