Teenage Admirer “They’re just something pretty to have around,”

Teenage Admirer “They’re just something pretty to have around,” said John McKay who’s had his birds for seven years. The teenager, a sophomore at Rappahannock County High School, has care of. the family’s chickens on his list of farm chores. The brilliant plummage of his three peacocks makes trips to the chicken coop just a little bit brighter. But like Richard Hitt. John sees the fowls as more than just another pretty bunch of feathers. "They make great watch dogs. They yell everyytime they hear something strange.” His cocks are kept penned at night and are a little bit tamer than Hitt's birds. They don’t come leaping into his arms when John calls but he has relatively little problem catching them and like the tigers in India, he nabs them by grabbing hold of the tail and pulling.

McKay's cocks wouldn’t strut for a strange visitor but ihey frequently pul on a show for their coop mates. ‘‘They’ll strut for the chickens and anything else that's around," John said. "When their fans open up, they rattle their feathers and make this roaring noise. It’s really neat."

When out of the coop during the day, McKay’s peacocks hang around the house, perching in a tree in the front yard or lining up on the roof like so many irridescent sentries. “They’re incredible,' John reported. “Even during the windiest storms, they hang right up there. I've never seen them blow out of a tree."

His birds, like Hitt’s, are top notch at pest control but the McKay flock eat the vegetables right along with the bugs. According to John, lettuce is their particular favorite.

Without any hens around, his cocks are non-aggressive, with each other at least. "We've had a problem with the roosters. Sometimes, they’ll fight the rooster and sometimes they won’t. But when they fight, they always win.”

One old chicken had a special problem with his flashy cousins. "They had a