We have rather different views. Most broody hens will peck at you if you disturb them on a nest. Quite right too. They're trying to hatch eggs and you/we are interfering. I had one broody only I can recall who would let me slide my hand under her body and lift her off the nest without pecking me at least once. It took 5 maybe six sittings and hatchings to gain her trust enough to do this. One of her tribe mates was the opposite, gloves and glasses job. If a broody hen doesn't object to me messing about with her eggs then I'm concerned. They need to be protective of their nests and one hopes this will lead to them being protective of the chicks.Katrientje and Pearl are not a real problem. I overreacted on these two.
But Janice really is a no go. If I take extra eggs away from the nest or want to see how many eggs have hatched , I don’t want to be attacked. Black and Ini mini were always friendly towards me. So I do prefer those two as broodies. But I don’t always have a choice.
Many people will say, the chicken doesn't really need to be agggressive, whatever that is, because we the keepers take care of their safety. But we don't, do we. We write a lot about it and say a lot about it but chickens are still dying in our care, predated in coops, in runs, ranging and free ranging, poor health care, poor diet and most of all, terrible human management.
It seems a lot of people want their chickens to be pets and that usually means total compliance with the humans wishes even though it's obvious we either don't know what we are doing or don't care.
It leaves the future of the chicken in a bit of a mess. From an independent free ranging bird able to feed themselves, defend themselves we are encouraging a preference for a short lived, over productive compliant submissive, overweight creatures that are not permitted to defend themselves and are dependant on humans who can't do it either.
I'm more then happy for a broody to peck me, even had a couple fly off the nest in full battle order. My problem, not theirs. Chickens were and many still are, domesticated, but not tame thankfully.
This is a problem many who keep backyard chickens find they have to deal with which often because of their upbringing, they never had to consider before. To keep chickens the way I want to keep them means one has to kill some. Chickens are closer to livestock to me until they establish a feral population. They are for most keepers whether they like viewing it in such terms or not. If one eats the produce of a creature and egg production was the reason for aquiring them (even just the eggs) then they're livestock.1 I can’t kill an animal like a cat, dog, pig, horse, chicken, rabbit, etc. I am too sensitive to manage that. I feel for them/pity them when they have a poor life, like I feel/pity humans who have a poor life.
As a kid I wanted to become a vet to cure sick (loved) animals. Until I realised that killing is part of the job. I was really upset when I realised a horse gets killed by a vet if he brakes a leg/ankle.
Managing livestock usually involves killing other creatures. It's called farming and that is where my views come from.
This is a fundamental problem for the backyard chicken movement. They're are people who think they're keeping pets when in fact they are farming.
I don't know of any farmers/chicken keepers that enjoy killing their livestock.
If one is going to keep chickens then being able to kill one humanely is vital.
Free ranging chickens get into all sorts of scrapes. Sometimes they get so badly injured it's cruel to keep them alive.It's kinder just to put them out of their misery.
Farming and pets again. Predators pets got shot on farms. Even in the UK.2 Cats are pets here. Very different from the cats you knew in Catalonia. Or the stray cats /restaurant cats in Greece. People here often love them as other people like dogs. Maybe like Rhib and other Caturday people?. Most cats live in the owners houses at least 50% of the time and well taken care for.
I can't see any reason why you should have to put up with someone elses cat stalking, or attacking your chickens.