Walter is a Silkie rooster in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Amber Hardy
January 26, 2022 - 7:00 AM
It took two weeks for one Kamloops woman to figure out which one of her ‘hens’ was cock-a-doodle-doing.
Amber Hardy owns five hens and to her recent surprise, a rooster, on her property in Valleyview.
“We thought they were all females and every time I went to the coop to find out which one was making a rooster noise they would all stop and stare at me,” she said.
Walter the rooster has gained a bit of fame in his neighbourhood for his loud and continuous noise-making at all hours of the day and night, something residents are not used to hearing. Sometimes it was as late as midnight. Due to a city bylaw that prevents anyone within the city owning a rooster, he was moved to a farm in Cherry Creek yesterday, but not before he got some laughs from the community.
“He is loud enough you can hear him from at least a four block radius,” Hardy said. “People were commenting on social media, asking where the noise was coming from. He started making noise two weeks ago and we didn’t get a single complaint, people seemed to enjoy him.”
Hardy raises her hens to be gentle therapy pets for her son who has autism. Walter was no different and quickly became a beloved family member and a bit of a clown.
“He is a very confused rooster,” she said. “At first he kept walking into walls and I thought he was blind. He has a huge hairdo so I trimmed the feathers that were blocking his vision which helped a little. The other chickens don’t really interact with him, they all just stare at him.”
Walter was raised from birth as an indoor/outdoor rooster and is a Silkie breed, much smaller than the other chickens.
“Walter likes to be picked up and hugged, he is so fuzzy with down he just puts his head in the nook of your neck and he goes to sleep,” Hardy said. “He is the first one running to the coop with me in the morning. If you walk around the yard he will follow you."
Walter the rooster with his friend Mollie the Mastiff.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Amber Hardy
Walter’s best friend is Mollie, the family’s English Mastiff.
“Mollie has the mom type personality so when we first get chicks they live in the house for the first three months and Mollie gets really attached to them,” Hardy said. “She will lay on the floor and let them sit under her armpit. She gets sad when they move to the coup.”
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When asked if it is a myth that roosters only open up at dawn, Hardy said she thought it was true until she met Walter.
Walter is now at a Silkie farm where Hardy has sent other ‘surprise’ roosters in the past, so Valleyview neighbours will no longer hear his noise in the middle of the night.
“He is with a great chicken mom in a beautiful space,” Hardy said. “We are so sad, I will never find another Walter.”
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