Ninja Chicken Strikes Again

So a quick dash to the allotment this morning before a day out and about. Upon arrival, I shouted hello to Geoff who was busy cleaning his coop and checked the greenhouse. Leia was visible, shouting at me for some reason. There could be so many reasons, that I have given up trying to work them out! Pop had shuffled herself around in the nest box but seemed quite pleased to be taken out. I put her into the wheelchair, left the food bowl within her reach and pottered down to the main coop.

Over the last couple of weeks, Aggie has been beginning to show aggressive tendencies. She has taken several hard pecks to my feet and legs resulting in bruising and some cuts. When I walked into the coop, I was immediately pecked several times in the feet by the marauding bird. Swiftly, I grabbed her, tucked her under my arm and proceeded to stroke her until she submitted. It took several minutes and I made sure I stroked her comb which also shows dominance. According to my online reading, some hens can become aggressive to humans, essentially replacing the cockerel. These birds tend to only be aggressive to humans but not to other chickens in the flock. After her enforced confinement under my arm, I put her down and she refused to come close to me. Hopefully she will have got the message. Although I suspect I may have to repeat this for a few days in a row to reinforce the idea that I am top chicken, not her.

Walking back to the greenhouse, discovered that Ninja Chicken had made a reappearance. There was the wheelchair, exactly where I had left it. There was the food bowl in the right place, sitting on top of an upturned plant pot. And there was Pop sitting underneath the wheelchair looking rather smug. How on earth she had managed to get out of the chair and crawl underneath it is absolutely beyond my comprehension. This is a chicken who can barely stand, who hasn’t walked in over 7 weeks but who can apparently levitate out of a wheelchair! It’s rather impressive although I can’t deny being a little miffed that she has already worked out how to escape from the chair. I’m going to have to spend the next few days trying to work out how to add some sort of strap to stop her getting out.