Five Brothers and a War

1943—Food Supply Becoming Scarce

But there was no way to increase the size of the coop, and the backyard grazing area was very limited in size, so Leendert decided not to change anything. They would just have to give it all a go with what they had. It didn’t take weeks of careful observation to conclude that Kees Sonneveld’s input was right on. That rooster had so much energy, he could not wait to get started at 4 o’clock in the morning, loudly announcing to the entire neighborhood that he was ready for action. Apparently chickens really do need their rest before starting another productive day. The rooster’s actions appeared to be motived by selfish desire rather than the common good of the family, so his days were numbered. Speeding up his demise was the fact that all of his “roostering” was consuming a lot of energy, which in turn translated to a lot of food consumption. Planning was undertaken to end his days. The backyard had a tree stump used to chop kindling wood for the hearth. Unbeknownst to Marie, Kees had his eye on the little axe-like cleaver she used to chop spinach. The stump and the cleaver were about to meet the rooster. Sensing his demise it took more than 15 minutes before Kees got hold of him, the whole time fighting like his life depended on it. Which, of course, it did. Kees was new at all of this, so things were not going smoothly. But once he caught the rooster, he needed to work out a way of holding him down on the stump while simultaneously wielding the cleaver. This was an operation that really needed three hands—one to hold the body of the rooster, one to stretch his neck and hold his head down and the third to plant the cleaver into the stump. Only having two hands meant that the operation was not going well. The one hand did hold down the rooster’s body. But each time Kees stretched out the neck, and then reached for the cleaver, the neck sprung right back and the rooster fought to free itself. Aside from the fact that the rooster had already annoyed Kees because he was a net drain on resources—eating too much and distracting the hens from their egg-laying responsibilities—his last acts of defiance had seriously strained Kees’ patience. In a quick flurry of activity, somehow the rooster and his head became separated. Which in turn led to a practical demonstration of the phrase, “running around like a chicken without its head.” The hens were as relieved as Kees when the running stopped. The enterprise did work for a period of time, although a family of seven, with five young males could eat a lot of eggs. However, as feed supplies disappeared, the hens would have to be sacrificed

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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