Permit me to endorse the letter of Suzanne Johnson ["Weapons, yes; hens, no," Sept. 3] regarding fowl keeping in Spotsylvania County. Further note that the city of Fredericksburg has now sensibly addressed the keeping of fowl within city limits.

I will not rouse the self-righteous wrath of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, not will I trample on the divine rights of the Second Amendment as interpreted by the NRA. Rather, permit me an old observation about chickens and the laying of eggs, handed down decades ago by my grandmother.

It would seem that to have hens laying eggs on a regular basis, there would need to be a rooster on the premises. And there lie the apparent concerns of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors: "The cock that crowed at dawn."

Our supervisors seem gravely bemused over the potential outbreak of cock-crowing as the sun peeps over the horizon in the wee hours of dawn--a dawn that sees Interstate 95 crammed with van pools of commuters headed north to The Center of the Universe; a dawn that sees State Route 3 backed up to Harrison Crossing; a dawn that now sees hordes of large yellow school buses stuffed with sleepy children careening down ill-paved side streets; a dawn that vibrates to the rumble of VRE trains across the river bridge.

The cock crows into a void as 78 percent of the county is already awake and moving!

Did I forget about sleeping in on Saturdays? No: There's the farmers market, and soccer games, and just plain old errands to run. The cock crowing at dawn will be drowned out by State Route 3 backed up to Harrison Crossing cluck-cluck.

Robert E. Gill

Spotsylvania