The Chicken Coop - Tales of the lost cock-a-doodle-doo

In a country, in a village, in a garden there was a family of, no not humans but chickens.

Well actually there was one cockerel called Neil and two hens called Marie and Kim. They lived happily together pecking the ground for worms and grubs and eating leftover vegetables from the humans who lived in the house next door.

One morning, as the sun rose in the sky, Neil walked out of the coop and prepared to make his morning call.

He opened his mouth and.........silence, nothing came out!

"Don't panic" Neil said quietly to himself, and tried again, "eeekkk" was all that came out.

Neil ran into the coop flapping his wings to wake then hens, "Marie, Kim, I've lost my cock-a-doodle-doo what should I do?"

Neil ran around in circles clearly upset, because it is very important for a cockerel to make his calls throughout the day to let everyone know where her is.

"Keep calm Neil" Kim shouted over the sound of flapping wings.

"It can't have gone far" stated Marie, "lets start looking for it".

Neil slowly began to calm down as the hens began to look around inside the coop.

Marie looked in the corners and under the straw bedding, Kim looked up on the perches and near the roof where the spiders lived.

"Can you see it, can you see it?" Neil shouted impatiently.

"No, we can't find it in here" Kim and Marie said together. Neil looked very disappointed, he had hoped that it might have been somewhere close by so he could be cock-a-doodle-dooing again in no time at all.

"I feel faint" whispered Neil, he was walking around in circles looking worried.

Kim and Marie were very worried about him so they puffed up their feathers and clucked trying to make him feel better.

Just then Andrew the pigeon appeared in the doorway of the coop.

"You look very unwell Neil, what's wrong?" asked Andrew.

"Oh it's terrible, my cock-a-doodle-doo is missing, have you seen it?" Neil cried.

"No, but i might know someone who has" said Andrew with a small smile on his beak.

"Last night i saw David the Robin outside your coop, in the dark! Maybe you should speak to him?" With that Andrew flew away cooing gently.

Neil went outside into the yard and looked around for David the Robin, and soon found him sitting close by on the branch of an apple tree looking very pleased with himself.

"Hey you" shouted Neil, "Come here, I need to talk to you". David the Robin flew gracefully down onto the coop roof.

"What can I do for you Neil" he said.

"I've lost my cock-a-doodle-doo, have you seen it? Only I am lost without it you see." Neil asked David.

"Well, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but after asking you nicely for the last week to keep the noise down you have continued to wake my babies with your cock-a-doodle-dooing, so I took it." David puffed out his beautiful red bread as he spoke.

Neil was horrified, he thought David was his friend.

"Please give it back to me David" Neil begged, "I will do anything."

David sighed, "If you promise me that you will only cock-a-doodle-doo twice a day until my babies leave home I will give it back to you."

"I am sorry David, I was selfish and did not listen to you, I promise to cock-a-doodle-doo only once in the morning and once at night", Neil said feeling very guilty for keeping the baby robins awake.

"Thats a deal" said David and flew away to collect the cock-a-doodle-doo. Neil, Kim and Marie all looked very relieved and hugged each other tightly ruffling each others feathers while they waited for David to return.

A few moments later David landed in the yard carrying a small black bag drawn together by string. He opened the top of the bag with his beak and Neil put his head close to the opening.

A small glowing ball of yellow light began to rise out of the bag and Neil caught it in his mouth, swallowing it quickly.

Neil ran to the middle of the yard, held his head up to the sun, arched his back and shouted,

"Cock-a-doodle-doo, cock-a-doodle-doo." It was the best sound in the world, well, Neil thought so anyway.