Have you ever had a chicken you just couldn't stand?

[coopdetat]

My roommate brought home this little silky/ameraucana cross that someone had given her for free. She had gone to buy a barred rock and a leghorn and this little hen got thrown in as a little bonus. We quickly named her "Squeakers" because she sounded like a squeaky railcar and made this noise nonstop from 8am through about 1pm and occasionally incite the other chickens to rioting and clucking noisily as well. We thought that she might be broody, but if we gave her an egg to sit on she'd quickly get bored or hungry.

I wanted to eat her -- we had more chickens than we were entitled to anyway -- but my housemates nixed that idea. A nice lady on freecycle who doesn't have so many neighbors to annoy eventually took her, and Squeakers put up a hell of a fight and we were only able to catch her after she wedged herself in the tiny gap between the coop and the fence -- screaming the whole time, of course.

Moral of the story: No such thing as a free chicken. Or, Always look a gift chicken in the eye. Something like that.

 

[workinnanie]

She sounds adorable! So glad she found a new home!

 

[workinnanie]

Quote:
Beautiful roo!

 

[tinychicky]

i had a polish like that. i put him in a coop full of tiny, inqisitive banties and he freaked out and hid his head in the corner of the nestbox

needless to say i didn't keep him around long. on the other end of the spectrum i used to have a simply awful leghorn hen who would beat up anything and anybody who crossed her path. she was able to live with a silkie mix rooster for a while until one day earlier this year when she killed him. she bloodied him up really bad and somehow broke his leg (or maybe he broke his leg and then she beat him up, i don't know) i know it was her because she had his blood on her beak and feathers. he died after that from what i think was a blood clot. i had to get rid of her after that which is was a little unhappy about she'd won a few ribbons for me at shows, but it's a relief not to have her any more all the same.

 

[Pele]

Chickens are just as prone to brain defects and chemical imbalances as any other animal. Whether she suffered a head injury, or she just developed a defect in the shell, you'll never know. I noticed that you were very focused on her comfort and happiness in your post, which is laudable, but be careful not to have tunnel vision when it comes to her.

If a chicken is making the rest of the flock uneasy or unhappy, then you should seriously consider removing said chicken from the flock. Wether this means selling her (with full disclosure), or stewing her is up to you to decide.

The well-being of the many should overshadow the one in flocks. If one hen makes life hard for the rest, then they have an undesirable trait that shouldn't be allowed to impact the others negatively. This is true for egg-eaters, aggressive birds, and crazy ones that scare the flock.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Thanks again for all the replies, humorous stories and advice! Here's what I've decided to do, at least temporarily:

Let me start by saying that today's "holding" session didn't go so well. I let them out of the coop and she evaded my capture. So I sat back to just let her and her coop mates freerange for a bit. About an hour later it was time to get put up because I had an errand to run. Guess who became the one chicken who would NOT go up? Cleo. So I had to chase her around the yard for 10 minutes, and honestly, by the time I got a hold of her, I was ready to cook her. But, I decided to put her in a smallish coop/run by herself: no more free-ranging!

She is now even more thoroughly scared of me, but I have decided to give it up with her for now and see how she adjusts when she begins to lay. On the upside, I noticed my ANCIENT white silkie hen, Sunshine, being harassed by my young upstart cockeral whom she is housed with and poor Sunshine was very upset... so on a whim I grabbed up Sunshine and tossed her in with Cleo. Sunshine can barely see, will mistakenly "chest bump" the wall rather than another bird, and seems at least a little intimidated by the size of Cleo, so at last glance after an hour or two together, Cleo was no longer afraid of Sunshine! She wasn't like, preening her or anything, but she is eating, drinking, and avoiding Sunshine with much less drama... so here's hoping!

Pele, the other birds so far seem to view Cleo as a lost cause...unfortunately (or fortunately

) for her they view her as a lost cause.

 

[Yonaton]

I've had a few I couldn't stand over the years. Most of them were just far too flighty for me to have to piddle with and they became supper.

I do have one hen now that I'm watching and more than likely going to have to do something with because she's dumb. Chickens are dumb, but this one is the dumbest I've ever had or seen in all my years around chickens. She sometimes can't seem to figure out how to get out of the run to be with the other birds, yet she's been doing it for 5 months. I'll literally have to go in the run, close the hatch to the coop and try to chase her out because she's going ape-crazy screaming and hollering (which is what makes me come out to see what's going on and I find this) wanting to be with the other birds. She's so stupid though that she won't go out the opening in the run and boxes herself into a corner and I have to catch her and bring her out.

Sometimes I have to go to the coop as they're all going in and watch, because she can't figure out how to go back in the run and then into the hatch to the coop and...yep...I have to catch her and take her to the hatch. She's somewhat flighty, but not always (more dumbness!). Sometimes she won't leave the area of the coop all day (and this is when she figures out how to get out of the run!) and fusses because all the other birds are wandering around eating and having a good ol' time. Sometimes she rememberes that when I call them, it's because I'm throwing out something to munch on, then the next day you'd think she saw me with a knife coming at her when I call them with some treats! I definitely can't allow this one to hatch any eggs of her own...one dumber than normal dumb is bad...a small hatch of really dumb would not bode well for them!

 

[TomG]

Quote:
I must disagree with Beekissed. I think it should be 350 degrees.