Territorial Chickens

I have some of the strangest animals. First of all, I have to start by explaining the habits of my chickens. I have 5 roosters and 2 hens. When we are home to watch them, we will let them out of their coop and instantly run to the front horse paddock to pick through the manure. I can't complain. They do a great job spreading the manure for me and keeping the bug population down. My guess is that they are actually looking for left over grain that has passed through the manure. There is one big, black rooster who is certainly the head of the flock. He will watch the flock, crow when he can't see any of the chickens, and herd them to where he wants them to go. He will usually keep the flock in the front paddock or under the Gardenia hedge. Occationally they will also wonder over to the side paddock to clean up the manure there. When the sun goes down, he will make sure they all go back to the coop where they belong.

So Sunday night I decided to ride Lilly, who happens to live in that front paddock. We are riding around the pen when this black rooster comes over to check us out. He then proceeds to come inside the round pen and chase us around the circle. Matt and I were cracking up laughing. I can only guess that he considers Lilly to be part of his flock and he felt that she needed to go to the coop with the rest of the flock. He even went back to the coop and came running back to the pen when we continued riding. He then stood in the middle of the ring and started crowing at us. It had to be one of the funniest things I've seen these chickens do yet. He wasn't be agressive and he kept his distance from her hooves, but he was running at us like he does when he wants the rest of the chickens to move a certain direction. I just wish we could have gotten it on video. He did eventually go back to the coop and leave us alone, but you could tell that he was very upset that we were not with the rest of the flock. Silly birds.