LEWISTON — Authorities are investigating whether a Turner man took proper care of the chickens on his property and whether they're rightfully his.

Eugene Jordan Jr., 58, insists he's done nothing wrong and the flap over his chickens is the latest in a string of run-ins with law enforcement officials bent on persecuting him.

The Maine Department of Agriculture seized nine chickens from Jordan's farm a week ago after executing a search warrant at his Snell Hill Road property, said Norma Worley, the director of the department's Animal Welfare Program. Those chickens are being examined for signs of ill health, including possible disease and malnourishment, she said.

"We are waiting on the results" of examinations and tests, she said.

The remaining 100-plus chickens on Jordan's property have been quarantined. Jordan, who said he bought the chickens earlier in the month for resale, is not allowed to sell any chickens until he hears back from the state, Worley said. Her office was responding to a complaint lodged with her department, she said.

Not everyone is happy with the way the state handled the investigation.

The Gardiner man who initiated the complaint says he saw an ad on Craigslist — an online auction site — stating that chickens were for sale at $5 apiece. A fox recently ate 30 of his chickens, so the man traveled to Turner and met with Jordan.

"We got out there and this guy, he basically had these chickens in a 9-foot by 14-foot box," the Gardiner man said. "The back doors were closed. There were 200 chickens in there and they were good-sized birds. There were no windows and they had no water or food."

The man did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation. Appalled at the conditions in which the birds were being kept, he bought 20 of Jordan's chickens and immediately called state officials.

"I keep chickens," the man said. "I've had llamas and horses. You take care of your animals. You treat them humanely."

He thought the animal welfare people would take care of the birds, but the first investigators showed up at Jordan's home without a warrant and were shooed away.

Later, they returned with a warrant and a pair of game wardens, two Maine State Police troopers, a handful of county deputies and two animal control officers.

They found the birds in a converted bus.

"Sure enough, there were 180 chickens in there with no ventilation, no food and no water," the Gardiner man said he was told by authorities who went to Jordan's property. "They were three-deep on top of each other. They fell out the door of the box."

A state veterinarian also was called to the property and decided to leave Jordan a note — he was not at home when the search warrant was executed — ordering him to provide food and water for the animals.

"That," said the Gardiner man, "is like telling a fox not to kill any more chickens. They're all going to die if they don't get fed."

The man has since been in touch with state representatives, the state veterinarian and the governor's office to check the status of the case and to further complain. 

Jordan denied the claims. He said Thursday he keeps the chickens in an old school bus. He feeds and waters them every day, he said. He plans to resell them before winter and had been advertising them on the Internet.

He said he bought the chickens from a man who works at a chicken farm near Troy. Jordan said he's been buying chickens from that man for years. The man, whose name Jordan declined to give, delivered the chickens to him in Turner, he said.

"I was just holding them for resale and got caught in the middle of it," he said. "Maybe they are DeCoster birds. I don't know. I don't really care where they come from. I bought 'em at a decent price and I'm trying to make a dollar."

Androscoggin County Chief Deputy Sheriff Eric Samson said Thursday three deputies assisted state Agriculture Department officials in executing the search warrant on Sept. 18. Afterward, a representative from DeCoster egg farms, also in Turner, went to Jordan's property to inspect the birds. Authorities are investigating the ownership of the remaining chickens, Samson said.

For Jordan, the flap over his chickens is only the most recent of his troubles with the law.

In 2004, he was the target of a civil suit filed by a local couple who claimed Jordan's junkyard on Snell Hill Road polluted a nearby river and decreased the value of their home. After a week of testimony, a jury ruled in Jordan's favor.

He also has been charged with assault several times in recent years, although many of those charges were later dismissed in court.