We spend a lot of time socializing and interacting with our birds - more pets than for utility. Our White Leg was a sweetie for 3 years - definitely the alpha hen and she was kind to her flockmates except she put the mean Marans in her place. We immediately re-homed the vicious Marans who attacked the Silkies too. At 3 y/o the gentle White Leg came out of her 3 year molt with a very aggressive behavior toward all her flockmates. Her behavior escalated and by two weeks we had to re-home her. She was put in a mixed layer flock and became the alpha of all those assertive girls. She was much happier and had no gentle or smaller birds to pick on. We had a sweet Buff Leg pullet but at 1 y/o she went bonkers on her flockmates and was meaner than the White Leg ever was - she was chasing all the gentle crested/bearded/muffed birds pulling out their head and face feathers mercilessly so she was immediately re-homed. These were pets and sweet as pie and then one day they went bonkers. Now we don't keep any straight or floppy-combed breeds or over 5-lb birds. Seems like all the pea/walnut combed breeds (or NO-comb breed like the Breda) are the non-combative types. As a rule our crested, bearded, muffed, feather-footed, or 5-toed birds are the non-combative gentles. So nice not to find bloody or balding birds in the flock now that we narrowed the breeds to reputed non-combative types! Sure - less or average-sized eggs but the peaceful flock is so worth it. We even stay away from the known gentle giants like Bielies, Brahma, Faverolles, Jersey Giants, Sussex, or even Dorkings because we don't want to take the chance that these larger birds might be tempted to bully - it's a chicken thing - so we keep the weights 5-lb-&-under just to be sure.
