NATCHEZ — When driving along Montebello Drive, passers-by might notice Charlotte Kunkle’s house and well-kept yard.

But they’re sure to notice the giant, seasonally decorated rooster.

That’s Bullet, and when it comes to chickens, he’s hardly the only one in Kunkle’s life. In her house, she has a collection of decorative rooster ornaments — and a few hens — that spans rooms.

When The Dart found Kunkle Friday, she had just purchased another chicken, a white hen, which she placed on a window seat in her kitchen.

Each chicken has a name and means something to her, Kunkle said.

Above her stove is a tile rooster with a Bible verse speaking blessings over the home splayed across its body.

“I got that after Hurricane Gustav,” she said. “We lost our house, but we were blessed to have our lives, and I got that because we were blessed.”

The names of her roosters often reflect the regional origins of the collection — Tex came from Texas, Prescott came from Prescott, Ark.

“I am thinking about naming the new one Mrs. Magnolia, because I bought her at an estate sale on Magnolia Street,” Kunkle said.

Though Kunkle said she has always liked roosters, the collection began approximately 10 years ago more or less on a whim.

“I just picked the first one up one day, and it went from there,” she said. “When I brought it in, I said, ‘He needs a mate.’”

From finding a mate for the original rooster, the collection has grown to include coin banks, tea candle holders with long wire legs, flyswatters and much, much more.

For the most part, Kunkle said her family and friends like her collection, with one exception — the rooster clock that crows every hour on the hour.

“When my children are here they will take the batteries out of that one,” she said. “They say, ‘I don’t like it, it keeps me awake.”