Days of our Buckeyes...part two

As the rain subsided and the evening began to fall, Bucky chased the birchen hen around right in front of the current inhabitants of the Buckeye pen.  He noticed Mahogany watching, just in time for that obnoxious rooster, TallBoy, to peck and chase her away from the feed she was standing by, and Bucky broke his attention just enough that Junior, the Phoenix rooster, chased him off his intended target.  Bucky hoped Mahogany hadn't noticed that part.  This whole making her jealous thing would work far better if Junior could just let Birchen go along with it.

Bucky settled in across the Buck pen from the Buckeye pen, roosting on an old nesting box the mama lady didn't like, but the man that came around sometimes had put off getting rid of.  For now, it gave Bucky a spot to watch the Buckeye pen without ticking off Junior in the tree up above.  TallBoy was still not letting Mahogany eat the fresh food that the mama had put in.  Bucky let his temper simmer.  If Mahogany was his hen, he would treat her so much better.  She should have snuck out of the pen again, stood up to TallBoy. Something.

Now Bucky felt himself clinging to hope, remembering his young caretaker talking with the mama and the girl who cared for the goats, about how Bucky might be shorter but was a beautifully shaped roo.  The caretaker boy even suggested hatching some more hens to raise to balance things out, and give them a chance to learn to live together when the pens moved again soon.

Until then, Bucky wanted to make sure Mahogany would keep looking at him, and consider him a better rooster for her...

"the holdouts"