Sorry if this is in the wrong place.
I have this chicken. Its a Leghorn X EE. Yeh, you can just imagine.
She's one crazy bird that lays blue eggs. And she lives in a garden.
She's always under my feet. I open one of the sheds, she's there.... I open the backdoor, she's there trying to run in.... I go to feed the rabbits & she bl**dy leaps into the hutch with the rabbit!
While I try to do anything, she is right & I DO MEAN right behind me, usually pecking me lightly or yanking on my pants or flying onto my shoulder / head. She ignores the other hens with scorn unless one finds food & then its hers & seems to see it as her right to oversee me every time I'm in the garden.
Yesterday I bent over & picked up a large plant pot. Just as I started to pick it up, she jumped in it! Then I had to go through the routine of feeding the rabbits. Ugh!
Open shed, toss chicken out. Open hutch, toss chicken out. Place rabbit dish in, toss chicken out of the dish & shut hutch door quick. & repeat another 3 times.
Its not a big hen, she's very small & skinny with a large crest. She was the naughtiest of the chicks & so got named "Naughty Nugget" at 2 days old. She escaped the brooder at 3 days & nearly ended up in the cat (which is now her best friend).
She's not aggressive at all to people, in fact she's probably overly affectionate, but she is a pain in the a**!
When I feed the dogs she races over & literally steals the whole dish from the dog. This is a rottweiler that gets told off by a tiny chicken.
So now I'm forced to feed the dogs indoors.
She's recently had her wings clipped since she flew up onto the shed roofs, ran about & then flew back down like some crazy oversized yellow blackbird when I ran out with a treat. She's a far better flier than the other hens, very light & speedy.
She is also hyperactive from dawn until dusk & always charging about with her head down & chases anything that moves.
Also the quail pen. Oh god! Every day she jumps in the large quail pen with the poor quail. I chase her off, turn around to open the door & as soon as I open that door, she charges in. Normally I'm prepared & I catch her by her long tail feathers as she streaks past me. That brings her to a sudden indignant stop & then I have to drag her backwards by her tail out of the pen past the bemused quail hens who seem to view this as a daily entertainment routine.
Then I dump her in the nearby shed, lock the door & return to the quail while she sits & watches through the shed window.
Many times she has ended up in the middle of the quail & I have had to fish her out before things have got nasty since the quail Roo does not appreciate Nugget stalking his plump hens with murder in her eye. So, with various angry sounds (which sound pretty pathetic coming from a quail) he throws himself at her & too many times I have reached in & dragged out a quail with a chicken attached or vice versa.
Fortunately that hasn't happened for a while, but only because Nugget tests my reflexes to the limit!
The only thing I can compare her to is the raptors in Jurassic park because she is smart. I've seen her flush mice up the garden with the cat, so I know she's at least as intelligent as the cat. And yep, I'm talking actual teamwork, one stands on one end & the other stands at the other end. Then they both drive the poor mouse back & forth back & forth until it is caught. I've also caught them both doing this to the quail in the pen & thanked god that they couldn't get at them through the wire.
I'm positive that both the cat & Nugget would pull a quail through the wire if they could.
None of my other 3 mutt hens are anything like this hen. They just scratch & peck a bit & then lie in the sun all afternoon.
I have a Rooster, but she just ignores him & he will storm after her & bok, bok, BOOOOKKK at her to behave. But he is heavy & she just gets up somewhere high so he can't reach her when he chases her. Also, she is faster than he is & just runs off. He has to look casual, wander up to her & snatch & grab at her to mate. 50% of the time she gets away before he's caught her.
If you want to catch her in the garden, forget it, its like trying to catch a lightning bolt unless she chooses to come past you.
I read leghorns were sometimes a bit crazy, but this bird takes it to the extreme.
The above is just a bit of what she does daily. It could go on & on since she has the speed of a cheetah & the attention span of a gnat unless she's sure somethings food.
One minute she's on the floor, then the fence, then the roof, then in the coop....
Last night I went outside because the dogs suddenly ran to the back door excited & found her hanging 6ft in the air on a nail by her hen saddle FROM THE COOP ROOF!
Of course she was screaming & shrieking like a cat fighting & the rooster was marching about on the floor in a panic going "Bawk, bawk, BAAAAWWWWK!" at the top of his lungs. We must have raised the whole neighborhood.
So me & the dogs & the cat (which ran in over the fence to see what the hell was going on in his garden) all crashed into the coop in a panic thinking a cat had got in there.
Hens went flying as the dogs charged in to check the back of the coop & I tripped over the poor rooster who screeched his head off & shot into reverse when he did see the cat.
As soon as Nugget spotted me she shut up & just hung there with her giant crest flopping slightly & her wings spread up & out. I unhooked her & put her on the floor to examine & she ran off!
Her wing is clipped heavily, but its just stopped her navigating. She still tries to fly.
Never again..... Just never..... no more leghorns...... my life won't ever be the same again......
I did try penning her..... once....
Is this normal or did I just get an oddball?
I have this chicken. Its a Leghorn X EE. Yeh, you can just imagine.
She's always under my feet. I open one of the sheds, she's there.... I open the backdoor, she's there trying to run in.... I go to feed the rabbits & she bl**dy leaps into the hutch with the rabbit!
Yesterday I bent over & picked up a large plant pot. Just as I started to pick it up, she jumped in it! Then I had to go through the routine of feeding the rabbits. Ugh!
Open shed, toss chicken out. Open hutch, toss chicken out. Place rabbit dish in, toss chicken out of the dish & shut hutch door quick. & repeat another 3 times.
Its not a big hen, she's very small & skinny with a large crest. She was the naughtiest of the chicks & so got named "Naughty Nugget" at 2 days old. She escaped the brooder at 3 days & nearly ended up in the cat (which is now her best friend).
She's not aggressive at all to people, in fact she's probably overly affectionate, but she is a pain in the a**!
When I feed the dogs she races over & literally steals the whole dish from the dog. This is a rottweiler that gets told off by a tiny chicken.
She's recently had her wings clipped since she flew up onto the shed roofs, ran about & then flew back down like some crazy oversized yellow blackbird when I ran out with a treat. She's a far better flier than the other hens, very light & speedy.
She is also hyperactive from dawn until dusk & always charging about with her head down & chases anything that moves.
Also the quail pen. Oh god! Every day she jumps in the large quail pen with the poor quail. I chase her off, turn around to open the door & as soon as I open that door, she charges in. Normally I'm prepared & I catch her by her long tail feathers as she streaks past me. That brings her to a sudden indignant stop & then I have to drag her backwards by her tail out of the pen past the bemused quail hens who seem to view this as a daily entertainment routine.
Then I dump her in the nearby shed, lock the door & return to the quail while she sits & watches through the shed window.
Many times she has ended up in the middle of the quail & I have had to fish her out before things have got nasty since the quail Roo does not appreciate Nugget stalking his plump hens with murder in her eye. So, with various angry sounds (which sound pretty pathetic coming from a quail) he throws himself at her & too many times I have reached in & dragged out a quail with a chicken attached or vice versa.
Fortunately that hasn't happened for a while, but only because Nugget tests my reflexes to the limit!
The only thing I can compare her to is the raptors in Jurassic park because she is smart. I've seen her flush mice up the garden with the cat, so I know she's at least as intelligent as the cat. And yep, I'm talking actual teamwork, one stands on one end & the other stands at the other end. Then they both drive the poor mouse back & forth back & forth until it is caught. I've also caught them both doing this to the quail in the pen & thanked god that they couldn't get at them through the wire.
I'm positive that both the cat & Nugget would pull a quail through the wire if they could.
None of my other 3 mutt hens are anything like this hen. They just scratch & peck a bit & then lie in the sun all afternoon.
I have a Rooster, but she just ignores him & he will storm after her & bok, bok, BOOOOKKK at her to behave. But he is heavy & she just gets up somewhere high so he can't reach her when he chases her. Also, she is faster than he is & just runs off. He has to look casual, wander up to her & snatch & grab at her to mate. 50% of the time she gets away before he's caught her.
If you want to catch her in the garden, forget it, its like trying to catch a lightning bolt unless she chooses to come past you.
I read leghorns were sometimes a bit crazy, but this bird takes it to the extreme.
The above is just a bit of what she does daily. It could go on & on since she has the speed of a cheetah & the attention span of a gnat unless she's sure somethings food.
One minute she's on the floor, then the fence, then the roof, then in the coop....
Last night I went outside because the dogs suddenly ran to the back door excited & found her hanging 6ft in the air on a nail by her hen saddle FROM THE COOP ROOF!
Of course she was screaming & shrieking like a cat fighting & the rooster was marching about on the floor in a panic going "Bawk, bawk, BAAAAWWWWK!" at the top of his lungs. We must have raised the whole neighborhood.
So me & the dogs & the cat (which ran in over the fence to see what the hell was going on in his garden) all crashed into the coop in a panic thinking a cat had got in there.
Hens went flying as the dogs charged in to check the back of the coop & I tripped over the poor rooster who screeched his head off & shot into reverse when he did see the cat.
As soon as Nugget spotted me she shut up & just hung there with her giant crest flopping slightly & her wings spread up & out. I unhooked her & put her on the floor to examine & she ran off!
Her wing is clipped heavily, but its just stopped her navigating. She still tries to fly.
Never again..... Just never..... no more leghorns...... my life won't ever be the same again......
I did try penning her..... once....
Is this normal or did I just get an oddball?
