Jonathan: It’s now more than ten years since we started keeping chickens, and these days we keep the best part of a hundred birds – even as I write, there’s more hatching in the incubator!.  Enough to make the lessons learnt hard enough to be of benefit to us, but not too many that we don’t see them as individuals.  And some are real characters.  It’s so often remarked that the better you get to know animals, especially the social aspect of their lives, you realize how much they and we humans have in common. Certainly, it’s occurred to me many times, whilst busy cleaning out the hen-house, that chickens do indeed have at least one thing in common with humans (and if it comes down to a chickens v humans tie-breaker, they’ll probably win). Amongst both species, there are individuals who see themselves as destined to the highest position, on attaining which they get great satisfaction from shitting on everyone below.