Freed From Five-Gallon Home : Rooster Raised in Jug Has Something to Crow About

Brewster the rooster, raised in a five-gallon jug, was freed in a feed-store ceremony Friday and turned loose in a backyard to mingle with chickens he has never seen.

“I figured now that Brewster’s an adult, it’s time for us to show him to the public and let him out,” said Bill O’Cain.

Brewster, who had been living in the jug with a half-dollar-sized opening since he hatched in April, was given his freedom before a gathering of townspeople and reporters at Cherry’s Feed and Seed store.

Used as Science Project

“We cut him out, and my father and I lifted him out of the jug and put him on the table,” said 14-year-old Cathy O’Cain, who was using the bantam rooster as a school science project. “The first thing he did was ruffle his feathers real big, and then he started clucking and strutting around the table. It was really neat.

“Brewster’s never seen another chicken, so I can’t wait to see how he acts when we put him with the other ones in our backyard.”

Brewster was one of a brood of six. But an opossum ate the others, leaving Brewster to fend for himself.

Cathy claimed the chick for a pet, but her mother wouldn’t allow him in the house. The jug was a compromise.

Inside his glass house, the bird grew from a 19-gram chick to a healthy, 1 1/2-pound rooster.

Grown Attached to Rooster

“We’ve really grown attached to Brewster,” said Bill O’Cain, Cathy’s father. “He wakes us up every morning by crowing in the house.”

The family took their pet on vacation with them this month in Myrtle Beach, and the folks at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum there took a keen interest in the bird.

“The manager, Pete MacIntyre, was thrilled to see him,” O’Cain said. Since the visit, Ripley’s officials have notified the O’Cains that Brewster may be the subject of a Ripley’s newspaper cartoon.

O’Cain says he cleaned the jug every day. He used ground corn cob for litter in the bottom of the jar, and he gave the jug a gentle rinsing every day, giving Brewster a bath in the process.

“It seems a little strange,” said Linda Heffner of the Orangeburg Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, “but it appears he has been well cared for and kept clean.”

Heffner said she didn’t think the SPCA would take any action in the case.

“There are a lot worse things a person can do to an animal,” she said.