Prize Rooster
John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called “pullets” and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the eggs. The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn’t perform went into the soup pot and was replaced.
That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.
The farmer had a favorite old rooster, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But the prize rooster almost didn’t make the cut.
On this particular morning while administering his test, John noticed his latest rooster’s bell hadn’t rung at all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would