Chicken Turf

We were looking out the kitchen window this morning and Stef commented at how interesting Featherfoot is and then I read my mom's comment below and it got me thinking how interesting the chicken society is around here.

We have 2 main roosters Featherfoot and Mr Tibbles. Featherfoot lives near the barn and Mr Tibbles lives near the coop. I say he lives near the coop because he eats there and sleeps there but after eating promptly escapes to forage. Featherfoot gets fed by himself by the barn because Mr Tibbles doesn't allow him to eat in the coop area. These are their territories. A while back Mr. Tibbles started coming over to the barn area and started a turf war. I though he was going to win too. I'm not sure what happened but Mr Tibbles is back where he belongs now. There are also certain girls that hang around more in certain territories than others. Featherfoot is a firm yet loving partner. He lets the ladies know that he is to eat before them but then lets them join him. There is one particular hen, Awkward, that just ruffles his feathers, he is always having to tell her off about something or other. Mr Tibbles is more of a tyrant. Most of the time he eats fine with the other chickens but sometimes gets irate over some wrong doing. I just don't see him being very compassionate towards his subjects. For those of you who know about chicken mating know that it is really just barnyard rape and that is what Mr Tibbles does. The hens holler and holler until he lets them go. It is quite brutal. We also have 2 other roosters that have somehow escaped the butcher knife that hang around with Tibbles. At first he ostracized them but it seems they are a part of his gang now. The girls don't like them either and sometimes after a failed breeding attempt the poor guys lose a few feathers from a ticked off hen. Featherfoot, on the other hand seems to have some sort of camaraderie with his girls. He protects them too. When they are laying in a nest, lord help you if you happen to walk too close and interupt her. She screams at him and then he screams at me. Or maybe they are just screaming at each other. There is one hen in particular that won't shutup for a good 20 minutes after the disruption. Poor Featherfoot, nag,nag,nag.