Ameraucana In The Coop

In all the weeks that I have had full-time chicken duty (since Nyel’s fall the 3rd of October) I’ve never seen the Ameraucana outside the coop.  She doesn’t come out with the other chickens when I open the coop door in the mornings and, though I’m seldom down there during the day, when I have paid a visit, she’s still indoors.  She does not fraternize with the other chickens at all, as far as I can tell.

Farmer Nyel says she was “acting weird” even when he was still Chief Chicken CEO.  When Slutvana went broody (falsely, as it turned out) and wouldn’t leave the nest, the Ameraucana hung out nearby.  I thought she was being solicitous of her Russian Orloff friend – perhaps eager to play the role of auntie when the hatchlings arrived.

Checking Out Breakfast

So, even though Slutvana gave it all up as a bad job weeks ago, perhaps the Americauna has had some sort of mental upset and is sticking around inside – just in case.  Sometimes, she seems to spend all day in one of the nest boxes.  On other days she wanders around on the coop floor, pecking at the food tray and looking confused.  Both the Farmer and I are pretty sure she leaves the coop to have a drink now and then – the water ‘trough’ is outside and she doesn’t seem dehydrated, so it stands to reason.

I’m beginning to think that she might have agoraphobia – you know, in people it’s the fear of leaving the house. But I looked it up and find that the fear is really more complicated than that. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that manifests as a fear of situations where escape could be difficult, or in which help would not be available if something bad were to happen.

Hesitating in Doorway

Actually, with those two randy roosters prancing around in the midst of the flock, I think the Ameraucana is showing good sense.  Perhaps it’s more an androphobic (fear of men) condition.  Or could it be alektorophobia — the fear of chickens?  I couldn’t find any phobia specific to roosters, much less any phobias that chickens, themselves, might have.  But now that I’ve thought her situation through, I think I’m a bit more sympathetic

Probably she needs a chicken psychologist or, at the very least, the services of a chicken whisperer.  That, of course, would be Farmer Nyel.  Keep your fingers crossed that he will soon be able to resume his chicken duties.  That Ameraucana needs him!