Secret Life of Poultry: Tiny the Attack Hen

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the feistiest little chicken of them all? I have my bets placed on Tiny the Terrorist, a Sumatra/Ameraucana mix hen who lives in Georgia with her owner, Cynthia.

What was originally a small story posted on the Backyard Chickens forums back in 2011 turned into almost a decade worth of watching Tiny’s antics. Fans of Tiny, myself included, would hear occasional updates from Cynthia, online as “speckledhen,” until the forum thread grew silent and I had to reach out for an update.

A decade ago, Cynthia bought some Black and Blue Ameraucana hatching eggs from a breeder, and Tiny hatched from a beautiful blue egg. She was a fraction of the size of her brood-mates and didn’t have a beard. Tiny appeared to be partially blind as well, because while the other chicks were eating, Tiny would just run across the top of the feeder. Tiny would watch them eat but wouldn’t participate.

At three days old, it became apparent to Cynthia that the ‘tiny chick’ wasn’t eating. “I don’t think she could see the feed,” Cynthia commented in a video on her YouTube channel. She mashed up some cooked egg yolk and put it in a dark blue bowl, and tapped on the surface as a mother hen would. “She started eating and singing,” Cynthia said, mentioning that the color contrast seemed to help Tiny see.

At three days old, it became apparent to Cynthia that the ‘tiny chick’ wasn’t eating. “I don’t think she could see the feed.”

To help her survive, Cynthia changed from her aluminum feeder she’d used for years to a red one. The change seemed to help Tiny see the feed better and soon she was eating as well as her brood-mates.

Tiny appeared to have bad depth perception, an issue that has gotten worse as she has aged. “She gets frustrated that she can’t see, and she will attack!” Cynthia said. Additionally, the more she grew, the more it became evident that she was not a pure Ameraucana. “Her shape, overall appearance, lack of a beard, the presence of spurs, the wild game hen look in her eye and her bad attitude, the latter of which earned her the ‘Tiny the Terrorist Attack Hen’ moniker, all screamed ‘Sumatra!’ not Ameraucana,” stated Cynthia.  

Once she reached adulthood, instead of laying the typical blue egg of the Ameraucana, Tiny laid a brown egg. “She’s one of my best layers, which is bizarre. Her eggs are as ugly as can be.”

After some time pondering this mystery, Cynthia reached out to the breeder from whom she purchased the eggs. That breeder told her that the rooster they were using had been purchased from another breeder that also bred, drum roll, please … Blue Sumatras!

Apparently, several generations ago, a Sumatra rooster flew over the fence into the Ameraucana pen. Tiny, although she hatched from a blue egg and her sisters were all perfect examples of the breed, was a throwback to that Sumatra.

As Tiny grew, so did her attitude. Tiny would wait patiently to be carried into the coop each night, as Cynthia eloquently described, “She waits outside under the edge of the coop for every other hen to go inside, then walks out to be picked up and carried inside like Cleopatra on her barge.” 

As soon as the coop door closed, Cynthia and her husband knew they couldn’t reenter. Tiny, with her bad eyesight, would attack anything that came in the coop at night. 

Cynthia recounted a tale of when she had to go into the coop after-hours to readjust a fan. “From under the roosts flew the Tiny Terrorist,” she recounted, “hackles flared like a cobra, making her look twice as large as she is, screaming, feet flying.” Cynthia was forced to fight the wild hen off while the rooster of the coop, Isaac, duly watched the commotion from his roost. 

Isaac would go into the coop every night at around 5:00 pm, jump on the roost, and close his eyes peacefully. “It was like he was clocking out and putting Tiny in charge,” Cynthia reminisced. Tiny would attack anything that came into the coop at night without fail, giving Isaac a nightly break.  

For several years, Cynthia and Tiny butted heads. She wasn’t fond of Tiny and commented about how she’d likely outlive all her nicer, sweet hens in the flock. Although he was key in keeping Tiny alive as a chick, Tiny would attack Cynthia’s husband as well by flying at his head and pecking him. When that happened, some of the nicer hens would target Tiny for chicken-on-chicken justice.

The day came when Cynthia decided to tame Tiny the Terrorist. She began petting her and giving her a lot of positive attention. “I avoided her. But I made the decision to baby her and pick her up.” After some time, Tiny came to enjoy and seek out the special care she was given.

In the video Cynthia posted on YouTube, Tiny can be seen coming up and looking at the camera inquisitively. “She’s like a kitten with me,” Cynthia said.

It definitely isn’t a complete personality turn around and Tiny is getting crotchetier every year. She is still a feisty little bird with an outgoing personality and stubborn, in-your-face attitude. When I asked to run an article on her, Cynthia told me “Her head is big enough already,” but luckily told me all about her story despite the risks.

To keep up with Tiny’s antics, visit Roots, Rocks & Feathers Farm, A Homestead Blog on Facebook, or Roots, Rocks, & Feathers on YouTube. Cynthia uploads a huge variety of videos about not only her chicken’s stories but homesteading tips and tricks as well.

Originally published in the October/November 2020 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.