Something weird is going on.. When I left for Mexico, there were a rooster and a hen penned up in the barn, my sister's chickens that I've been somewhat reluctantly chicken-sitting. I got back and saw the hen in there, and the next day, saw a rooster out in the field. So I opened up the coop to let him get back in, or the chicken out, but he stayed outside and I didn't see the chicken with him. A few days later a chicken did appear, but it's not one I've ever seen before (and where could it have come from?)

Then I learned that the rooster wasn't the original rooster either, Ken or Megan or Rick or someone brought it out. Some people think the original rooster was gotten by whatever've been getting into the chicken coop, while I was away. So, what happened to the old hen when I opened up the coop, and how did this new hen appear down in the valley? And how did I go a week not noticing the rooster wasn't the same one while he ran around in the field and yard?

I can only answer the last question: To me a rooster is a rooster, they're interchangeable, though I have no trouble telling hens apart.