Mean chickens

I've never visited this forum before, but I stopped by today and I have to tell you that it's great! The folks seem very friendly and unpretentious and the topics are interesting. Hope y'all don't mind if I stick my two cents in without being invited 8=}.

We recently moved to town after living for 15 years in a rural part of Oregon near Klamath Falls. We had 5 1/2 acres but it wasn't really a farm...more of a homestead, I guess. We had a herd of dairy goats, an old donkey, some ducks, cats, and a dog. Anyway, when we first moved there someone gave me a couple dozen assorted chickens that were of fighting cock breedstock. We don't believe in fighting the animals, but hey, we figured chickens were chickens, right? The guy that raised them told me that their behavior was very much like guinea hens, which is why I'm bringing it up. Hope nobody is offended by their background. After all, they couldn't help who they were. They were a mix of several different breeds, but all were bred for the fight. Beautiful beautiful cocks, but mean, mean, mean...even the hens.

We didn't have a coop so we just let them roam free. They never went off our property (I couldn't figure out how they knew where it ended...hehehe). At first they roosted in the goat barn at night, and would ride around on the backs of the goats, pecking bugs and stuff. I finally had to expell them from there because whenever they had chicks to protect, they were so mean that I couldn't even get into my milk room. They'd chase the dog around the outside of the house, her tail between her legs hightailing it for all she was worth. Then they took to roosting high up in the pine trees. In all those years I never lost one to the cold. I did give them supplemental feed, but I'm pretty sure they would have survived just fine even without it. They ate bugs by the bushel, laid wonderfully orange yolked eggs, had the cutest babies you've ever seen, and were an all around asset to the place. They are wonderful mothers! In fact, we used to give our duck eggs to one of the broody hens to hatch out because the ducks just weren't very good at mothering. The hens would raise them till they could take care of themselves and nothing could get at them. I' ve never seen such protectiveness in any species of animal.

But they were the meanest things that ever walked on two legs! The cocks would take to fighting each other for dominance and would actually fight to the death, even without a ring and a bunch of beer guzzling bad guys sitting around. Even the hens would go after each other, particularly when they had little ones. I'm sure that it was the breeding that caused it, but when you see a hen fly up in the face of a fully grown steer and try to peck his eyes out, it's time to think about those docile little cluckers happily scratching away in their hen houses. And, don't get me started on the holes they dug, or the cars covered with you know what! But they were fun. I'm glad I had them, and I'd never have them again.

If anybody wants some...too bad...they're all gone now and the only thing I have to remember them by is some pictures.