Hi, I would like to share a story about one of my hens. Her name is Ginger and she is a few eggs short of an omelette.
I think she is a spoiled brat of a chicken... and maybe too much inbreeding for show quality (which I did not think about when I purchased her). She is on the far left.....this is about as close as she will get to the others.
I keep a growing flock of Japanese Bantams. They are kept as pets and all have names. All are very tame and gently - except Ginger. She is a colour I wanted for ages and in my area it took me nearly 6 months to find her. She was WILD when I first got her .....like she had never see a human before. I expected her to tame down after a week or 2, but that never happened. If I go anywhere near her she runs off clucking loudly and then will pace up and down the fence as far from me as she can, until I leave the run.
If another chicken goes anywhere near her she freaks out and starts screaming and running about- even though the other chickens never show any aggression to her.. But she has a special friend - Noodle - my second in command rooster. Its true love.
She sticks to him like glue. They are always together and he will not allow any other chicken - even top roo, to get near her. Noodle is a mean roo. He is selfish, always pushing the hens out of the way to get to food and treats and never sharing. He is the only one to snatch food from my fingers roughly and he picks on the younger chicks often. The other roos will call to the girls when they have a treat for them. But Noodle will only share his mealworms will Ginger! Here is ginger with noodle to protect her!
In the daytime there is total peace in the run. Ginger always of the side of Noodle away form sight of the other chickens. But roost time is crazy. I live in Thailand and we keep our chickens under baskets at night. I also use 2 large metal dog crates as roosts too, as they protect the birds form the resident python (who ate most of my ducks).
Now they all know which basket and what crate to sleep in. I just lift one up and the correct chickens go in. Easy. But Ginger has her own ideas!
All the lower ranking roos, pullets and chicks sleep under various baskets. Noodle and the white hens sleep in blue dog crate. Top roo - Rock - and the coloured hens sleep in pink dog crate. But Ginger wants to sleep with Noodle. She will rush past me screaming and fly into the blue cage waiting for Noodle. Now her personality changes. She becomes real mean and will attack any other hen that enters, not stopping until they leave. She wants the place to herself and Noodle - their own private love nest.
I have to take her out - screaming and struggling with anger (the chicken not me), and put her in the cage with the coloured hens. Then all the white hens can go to roost quietly.
But once in the other cage Ginger changes again. She 'shuts down' and squats on the floor, neck and head stretched out - screaming and screaming. The other hens just walk around her giving her strange looks and then fly up to roost. Then Ginger will join them - cringing against the wall. I think she HATES the other hens. She thinks she is so much better than them - more pure breed and expensive. She is a real snob. They never attack her or peck her, so she need not be afraid of them.
the other strange thing about Ginger is she will never surrender to being held. She will scream and wiggle, flap and peck hard at me and not give up until I put her down, no matter how long I hold her. If I relax my grip only slightly she wiggles away, scratching my arms, only to re join Noodle. They are a perfect mean pair. Both like to pick on the younger chicks and Ginger will corner one and keep pecking it hard until top roo Rock comes to sort it out.
What a strange hen!
I keep a growing flock of Japanese Bantams. They are kept as pets and all have names. All are very tame and gently - except Ginger. She is a colour I wanted for ages and in my area it took me nearly 6 months to find her. She was WILD when I first got her .....like she had never see a human before. I expected her to tame down after a week or 2, but that never happened. If I go anywhere near her she runs off clucking loudly and then will pace up and down the fence as far from me as she can, until I leave the run.
If another chicken goes anywhere near her she freaks out and starts screaming and running about- even though the other chickens never show any aggression to her.. But she has a special friend - Noodle - my second in command rooster. Its true love.
In the daytime there is total peace in the run. Ginger always of the side of Noodle away form sight of the other chickens. But roost time is crazy. I live in Thailand and we keep our chickens under baskets at night. I also use 2 large metal dog crates as roosts too, as they protect the birds form the resident python (who ate most of my ducks).
Now they all know which basket and what crate to sleep in. I just lift one up and the correct chickens go in. Easy. But Ginger has her own ideas!
All the lower ranking roos, pullets and chicks sleep under various baskets. Noodle and the white hens sleep in blue dog crate. Top roo - Rock - and the coloured hens sleep in pink dog crate. But Ginger wants to sleep with Noodle. She will rush past me screaming and fly into the blue cage waiting for Noodle. Now her personality changes. She becomes real mean and will attack any other hen that enters, not stopping until they leave. She wants the place to herself and Noodle - their own private love nest.
I have to take her out - screaming and struggling with anger (the chicken not me), and put her in the cage with the coloured hens. Then all the white hens can go to roost quietly.
But once in the other cage Ginger changes again. She 'shuts down' and squats on the floor, neck and head stretched out - screaming and screaming. The other hens just walk around her giving her strange looks and then fly up to roost. Then Ginger will join them - cringing against the wall. I think she HATES the other hens. She thinks she is so much better than them - more pure breed and expensive. She is a real snob. They never attack her or peck her, so she need not be afraid of them.
the other strange thing about Ginger is she will never surrender to being held. She will scream and wiggle, flap and peck hard at me and not give up until I put her down, no matter how long I hold her. If I relax my grip only slightly she wiggles away, scratching my arms, only to re join Noodle. They are a perfect mean pair. Both like to pick on the younger chicks and Ginger will corner one and keep pecking it hard until top roo Rock comes to sort it out.
What a strange hen!
