Some roosters who enter the National Rooster Crowing Competition held every year in Rogue River (brought to you by the Rogue River Rooster Crow Committee and the Rogue River Kiwanis) are raised from hatchlings, waking their human benefactors at the crack of dawn.
These are the roosters whose owners know their breed.
Others are roosters that appear, at a house, or in the case of Big Chain Saw, on the side of the road in front of a business, one that might already work early-morning hours and doesn’t mind the joyful sound of roostering.
The latter category is that of Big Chain Saw, a majestic rooster who just happened to be along West Evans Creek Road, where the crew at Silva Timber Services starts its day.
“We just saw him clucking on the side of the road,” Nick Way, who was feeding Big Chain Saw and encouraging him to cluck by rubbing his fingers in front of his eyes, not that he needed that much encouragement. The large gold and black rooster, who COULD be a Golden-Laced Wyandotte if he cared to know, crowed 48 times within the half-hour of the crowing competition, beating 16 other roosters.
Big Chain Saw took over the competition in the middle 10 minutes of the half-hour, leaping past Oreo, the Silver Laced Wyandotte owned by Tarey Farmer, the second-place finisher, and Smokey, the smaller rooster owned by Ruch youths Annie and Levi Blackburn, from his cage, his cage perched atop a green plastic recycling bin because there was no room on the sawhorse tables for him.
Big Chain Saw had 31 with just under 10 minutes to go, and that’s all he needed, with Oreo stopping at 17 and Smokey at 15. The only question was whether Big Chain Saw would be the first with more than 50 crows since Chris Rock’s 81 in 2022 and only the second since Crow-Darr in 2015.
The threat of rain, even an afternoon thunderstorm, never followed through. However, the cloudy, cooler conditions favored the roosters, more so than the midsummer heat waves past Rooster Crow weekends have experienced.
“He’s a great company alarm clock, waking us up at midnight, 3 a.m., 4 a.m.,” Way said.
Big Chain Saw earned the crew at Silva Timber Services the top prize of $150. At the same time, Farmer, who is usually honored for her crocheted cage covers that have won her several Best Cage awards, won $100 for Oreo’s second-place finish, and Smokey won $50 for the Blackburnes.
Sheri Lynch, a local resident who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for extreme collection of all things hippopotamus, was the hands-down winner of this year’s Best Cage for several allusions and sight gags that fit the “Crowin’ Down the River” theme.
There was drama even before the National Crowing Championships when one of the contestants broke loose from his cage and made off toward the Woodville Museum, weaving its way around the legs of the surprised onlookers. Chris Gervasi, a local farmer and middle school wrestling coach, grabbed the bird before the bird could make its great escape among the relics at the museum.
Reach reporter Brian Mortensen at [email protected] or 541-582-1707.