TOC

Meet "TOC".

This is just the second chicken on our farm to become deserving of a name.

When Henny Penny (the only other chicken with a name and one that I rather like) disappeared the other day, it was this hen that ultimately led me to where to find her---trapped in behind the newly stacked bales in the barn. I am 100% sure that if this hen had not been acting weird and trying to get back there last night, that Henny Penny would have died right where she was.

And so being the heroine that she is, she is allowed to be named.

Where does "TOC" come from?

Well, actually this hen has had a "reference name" for several months--ie "Trans-Gender Opportunist Chicken". That is how I have identified her from the rest of the flock for quite some time. And so "TOC".

Huh? Trans-Gender what?

She is so called because #1. She, of all the hens, has developed some really strong secondary male sex characteristics. Her comb (red part on the head) and wattle (red part under her beak) look way more like a rooster's than a hen's and she also some stronger male-type feathering. Thus, the trans-gender part. (FYI--Chickens do actually do, it's an actual scientific fact and officially called "spontaneous sex reversal--look it up!)

And the "Opportunist" part?

Well, when all the other hens rejected Henny Penny, and she started hanging around with people, TOC was the first to notice that Henny Penny's human acquaintance meant she got quite a few more delicious tidbits than anyone else and so TOC started following her everywhere, always scavaging what she could from the favored one. This annoyed me until yesterday when I realized that although their relationship started for all the wrong reasons, it's apparently good enough for one to care where the other one disappeared to and alert the world.

And so it was that TOC got a name.