The Pit-chicken from hell.

The little red hen has been going about her business, raising her family of 3, in the east apartment with attached outdoor patio off the chicken coop. She taught her babies that when people appear, they usually are bearing treats and to scurry to the fence and look really cute.

Yesterday the little red hen was pacing the fence and muttering to herself, it was clear she was ready to introduce her family to the outside world so I opened the gate. She didn't hesitate but hopped the board at the bottom of the pen, calling her chicks to "Come Quickly!" Like the good little soldiers they are, they each hopped over the board and set to work pecking at anything green and scratching furiously at the earth.''

I waited nearby because the other chickens were around and I didn't know what they might do with the munchkins busily working over anything in their path. A few hens wanted a closer look but were not threatening.

The babies were reveling in their new found freedom, no fences in sight.

Then they discovered the hallowed dusting ground and set to work scratching, rolling and throwing dirt around.

All was going well until some words were exchanged between the little red hen and the grey hen, who, by the way, has never raised a child of her own. She shouldn't have been so critical!

I was hoping the little red hen would kick her butt but she was hopelessly outmatched and, with the dogs very interested in the fight, I scooped up the grey hen and gave the little red hen the chance to retreat. She huffily gathered her babies around her and marched them back to their pen.

I'm sure she used that a lesson, "Children, sometimes you just need to ignore rude chickens, especially when they are bigger than you are."