Chicken Coop in the snow

These days, Farmer Nyel heads for the coop about 4:30 in the afternoon, just as it’s getting dark.  By that time, the girls have returned to the coop from their daily endeavors and are settling in for a good night’s sleep. Nyel has only to check the nest boxes for eggs and to close and latch the coop door against the possibility of midnight marauders.

His first duty (the egg gathering) has been complicated a bit lately by those two girls who have decided to sleep in the nest boxes rather than on the roost.  Nyel has a choice.  He can either reach underneath each of the ladies to see if they are atop an egg, or he can wait until morning.  He usually chooses to wait, disliking the annoyed rustling and clucking of disturbed hens.

Sleeping Tail-to-Beak

As reported here some days ago, only one of our four girls has been sleeping on the roost lately.  Besides the two in the nest boxes, one recalcitrant hen has been sleeping above the nest boxes – ‘on the shelf’ as it were.  But last night there was a mystifying change in the sleeping arrangements.

For whatever reason, the girl above the nest boxes has returned to the roost… sort of.  Nyel was flabbergasted to see that she was resting comfortably right on top of her sister on the perch.  Now, we’ve all heard of kids in big families who need to share a bed and who sometimes sleep in toe-to-head fashion.  These two hens were asleep tail-to-beak style, one on top of the other.  Definitely a first, at least in our coop!

Exemplary Roosting – Image from Cyberspace

It’s certainly not because of crowded conditions.  The entire remaining four feet of roost was totally empty.  Both girls were apparently comfortably asleep.  What the heck?  We can only assume that at least one of them didn’t get the memo explaining the protocol of roosting.  Actually, maybe none of them did.  They are arguably the most creative snoozers who have inhabited the coop since it was built eight years ago!

We’ve considered trying to educate the girls, perhaps by showing them pictures of ideal roosting situations.  But… educating chickens is a difficult task.  So…whatever floats your boat, we say.  Or in this case, whatever tethers their feathers…