That crazy hen flogged DH today again. The reason? He was sitting on the bottom step holding her and put her down to pet another hen who was tapping on his shoulder from behind. Tiny immediately flared up like a feathered cobra and hit his leg. If she was a rooster, she'd have been in a stew pot ages ago.
She's come very close to having her scrawny neck snapped quite a few times, literally, because she was grabbed by the neck to stop an attack and it was just sooooo tempting!
I think it's really because we spent so much time trying to get her to live after realizing when she was about 3 days old that she couldn't see the food and rectifying the situation (by using a brightly colored feeder to get good color contrast between the tan crumble and feeder). The first time she really saw the food and was singing her tiny heart out while eating mashed up egg in a bowl touched us so deeply. We were going to name her, but had started calling her "the tiny chick" because she was about half the size of the others, and the name just stuck.
She's still the lightest weight hen in the main flock, guessing barely 5 lbs, but she lays a medium brown egg and lays it almost every single day. She truly is one of my best layers, right up there with the Plymouth Rocks. The other day when I was coming down the steps, she started to run toward me, then veered off and hightailed it to the coop--that egg was coming down the pipe, LOL.
Ah, more Tiny adventures! I missed this.
The stories makes me think of something My DH said to our son once. "Sometimes you're lucky you're cute" Once they get under your skin's it's difficult to throttle them LOL. At least she lays well...
I just now read the original post - LOL, what a girl!
One of ours that is jealous of others and too brave to face AND to bully anyone she chooses is my Tilly, who weighs approximately 500 grams (a bit more than 1 pound?) - her second name is "Mommy's Little Sharky", for a good reason!
This story made me laugh, too funny! I hope she will never end in the "pot", regardless of her quirks!
Tiny is in full molt and grouchy, even for Tiny. She is really being a handful, but DH has infinite patience and compassion for her. That hen has no idea how good she has it.
Tiny is in full molt and grouchy, even for Tiny. She is really being a handful, but DH has infinite patience and compassion for her. That hen has no idea how good she has it.
Some of the other hens will get off their roost to come give her the what-for when she attacks their "daddy". Tonight, my EE, Maretta, thunked her in the head a couple of times when she was biting at us while we were trying to do something with a hen at roost time.
