Hen Chronicles: They're smarter than you might think

Conventional wisdom has it that chickens, to put it politely, are not the smartest birds in the flock. Some owners claim, for example, that their chickens don’t even have enough sense to get in out of the rain. This has never been an issue for our three hens, who dash into or under their coop at the mere sight of a raindrop.

From time to time since we got Snow, Stella and Nala more than four months ago, I’ve seen other signs that Gallus domesticus may be smarter than its reputation would suggest. Take what happened Sunday afternoon, for example, when I decided to give the roost in their coop a quick scrub with a wet brush and a dry rag.

The best way to get at the roost in our small henhouse is to lift the hinged roof and prop it open. I can then reach into the coop and do whatever needs to be done, whether it’s scooping out poop, adding shavings for bedding or - in this case - cleaning the elevated wooden roost that stretches across the coop from front to back.

It’s important during these chores to keep the ever-curious hens out of the coop. Although they can’t fly very far or very well, they could certainly “fly the coop” through the open roof, if given half a chance.

To prevent that from happening on Sunday, I tossed a handful of dandelion greens and grass clippings into the wire pen that is attached to the coop. Once the hens were preoccupied with munching outside, I closed the small door leading from the pen into the coop, to keep them out of the coop during my ministrations.

I didn’t give the girls another thought until I lowered the coop’s roof after I finished cleaning the roost. Walking around to the front of the coop so I could reopen the coop door, I noticed that all three hens had stopped chowing down on their clippings, which is highly unusual because greens of any kind are among their favorite foods.

Instead, the hens were standing in front of the coop, staring at the closed door and clucking animatedly in what sounded to me like expressions of concern. They knew something was amiss because the door was closed when it normally is open. As soon as I reopened the door, the girls turned away from the coop and resumed eating. Order had been restored, so they were happy.

That doesn’t make them Mensa material. But it does suggest that chickens are more aware of changes in their surroundings than the average TV-addicted, iPhone-addled human being is.