I love chickens. We always had chickens when I was a child. Even when we lived in the city, my father built a small chicken house and we had chickens in our backyard. My father painted the chicken house red, and he cut the shape of a chicken into the door.
When we moved to the country (田舎) when I was 11, my father built a much larger chicken house. We had more chickens. We had fresh eggs every day. The chickens were allowed to run around freely during the day, and they went into their house at night to sleep.
We put chicken food in the chicken house, but they also loved to eat insects and seeds all around outside their house. They also loved to eat catfood!
We had dogs, cats, and chickens that lived outside. We always fed the cats and the dogs in one big dish. (Our dogs ate cat food.) When it was time, we would put a large amount of cat food outside in the big dish, and shout, "Here Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!" The cats and dogs AND chickens would all come running when they heard that because they all loved cat food.
It was so funny because the pets would take turns eating from the dish. Do you know who ate first? The chickens! The chickens ran straight to the food dish and ate cat food, while the cats and dogs waited a short distance away. The cats and dogs believed that the chickens were boss.
After the chickens finished eating, the cats would eat next. When they finished the dogs would finally have a turn to eat.
Do you know the expression "pecking order"? Peck means つつく. So pecking order means つつく階層. It refers to how chickens establish their heirarchy (階層). Sometimes we use the expression "pecking order" to describe human behavior too.
Anyway, the chickens were at the top of the heirachy of pets. They were the strongest. And the dogs were at the bottom, even though they were the largest.