I am a bit of a reflective soul and lately I have been thinking about our original chicken and her relationship to us. Of all the chickens we have had, she seems to be the one that is most dependent on us. She came to us as a stray and we always thought of her as an independent girl, but now I am not so convinced.
I don’t think Buster’s comb has ever been this big.
She just showed up in our yard one day, not long after my husband talked to me about having chickens. I was not convinced, but she came along and the rest is history. Not long after she started hanging out, my husband bought a rabbit hutch and turned it into a coop for her.
She is a bantam chicken, and we brought home a friend, a Red Star. We didn’t know at the time that it was probably not the best combination, but it worked for the most part. My husband named her Buster, and in many ways she has lived up to her name. She can be such a bundle of attitude.
She goes through spells where she crows. That is probably my least favorite thing about her because I worry about the neighbors. Although there are plenty of other loud chicken noises that can rival the crowing.
With our current flock, she is definitely top of the pecking order. My husband likes to say that she runs a tight ship. She actually looks big compared to our Seramas. I don’t like how mean she can be at times. Sometimes it is challenging for the other girls to lay in the nesting boxes because of her. I started separating her from the others to make sure they get their share of treats.
I think of her as codependent on us because she does always seem to want us around. She often yells as if she is saying “Come on out and pay attention to me.” Sometimes it seems like she yells most of the day. I get surprised that she doesn’t lose her voice. It does make it easy to find her when we search the yard for our chickens.
She always runs to us and stays close by when we are around. It is nice because sometimes I feel snubbed by the other chickens. Most of the time I do not have any problems catching her, but that is not true of the rest of the flock.
I do love our little bundle of attitude. We have had her for around five years. We have a special bond with her that we haven’t quite had with any of the other chickens. I recently decided to make her crowing my text notification tone. She is my crazy crowing hen.
