We had a hawk show up on the fence one day, and it revealed a lot about the girls.
Ginger - Red Star - The most friendly, very inquisitive. She's first to try any "new" thing I introduce. Like the usual treats in a different bowl
Aggressive about getting food first, but she's never taken a day off from laying, so who can blame her? She's earned it! Layes her egg first thing in the morning, usually, and sometimes before dawn. When the hawk came, I thought she had been "hit" because I couldn't find her -- she didn't show back up for 5 minutes, and I never did figure out where she hid.
Crystal - White Rock - Dumb as a shoe. She could get lost in a nestbox, and she knows it, so she tends to hang close to the coop and run, even when the other girls are running free. Fairly friendly, wants to sit on your shoulder, has since being a chick. Not very confident. When the hawk came she ran into the henyard and "hid" in a corner where she was in plain view.
Flower - Egyptian Fayoumis - Like having a wild animal around. She's mellowed over the winter, but she's still pretty anti-human. Very alert, and territorial about good worm-digging spots. She's like having a banty rooster, sometimes: I saw her chase a cat out of the yard once. Doesn't like being handled at all - when I have to toss them back into the coop/run she would rather be chased into coop rather than be picked up and carried like the others. Squawks with the weirdest voice. Protests being petted. The hawk inspired her to discover the space under the stairs to the trailer I use for an office.
Buffy - Buff Orpington - A big girl, and she knows it. Has some lack-of-confidence in her motions due to her size, like when jumping off of the roost. Marginally friendly when younger, likes being handled more now that she's grown. The hawk sent her under the dead VW Beetle I'm saving for my 9-year-old gearhead.
Shadow - Black Australorp - Ninja-chicken! She started squatting like the others when the whole laying thing began, but decided one day to bite me instead. I think she realized I wasn't giving her what a rooster would, and got mad about it. Savvy, wary, independent of the others. The hawk sent her under the trailer.
I've called the hens by name since the day we brought them home, and I talk to them and call them by name when I "tuck them in" for the night. They all know their names, but they don't always WANT to respond - like cats, they're not as obedient as they are self-interested.
We brooded them in the house and we all handled them daily when they were in the house. I think it made a big difference, compared to chickens I remember from my childhood (ow).
