Hen Chronicles: Why move when you love the old place?

Like many of us, chickens do not like change. Unlike many of us, they take their fondness for the status quo to extremes.

Our small coop always has had two nesting boxes, which Snow, Nellie and Hope were supposed to use to lay their eggs. In fact, all three hens always chose the same box, possibly because the unpopular box was twice as wide as the popular one, and therefore less private. Trouble is, all of the hens typically lay their eggs at roughly the same time, so traffic jams at the "in" box are common.

This has resulted in some comical situations over the years. It has not been unusual for one or two hens to stride back and forth in the coop, waiting impatiently for the occupant of the small nest box to vacate the premises. If one of the waiting hens was especially desperate, she might force her way into the occupied box. We then had two full-grown hens smooshed together in a box that’s barely big enough for one of them.

Early on Thursday morning, I decided to install a wooden divider in the center of the unused nest box. This instantly transformed the large box into two small ones. The coop now contained three nest boxes that were almost identical in size.

Problem solved? Not so fast. Predictably, this seemingly minor redesign created much consternation, at least initially.

As soon as I finished installing the divider, all three hens trooped into the coop from the pen, to investigate. They dutifully steered clear of the “new” nest boxes, while making their displeasure known by squawking, scratching the coop floor with great intensity, and pecking at the pine shavings that we use for bedding, even though the shavings aren’t really edible. This was especially humorous because the chickens wanted nothing to do with the wide box before I split it in two. So why did they care about it being altered?

The best answer I can come up with is this: because they're chickens.

The hens laid no eggs on Thursday, which is unusual but not unprecedented. Normally, we get anywhere from one to three eggs per day during the summer months. I toyed with the idea that Hope, Nellie and Snow were on strike, but of course hens don’t release or withhold eggs at will. So I looked around to see if “the girls” had laid their eggs elsewhere in protest, but found none.

Then Friday rolled around. Nellie, Hope and Snow each laid an egg. All three did so before noon. And all of them used the same old nest box, even though the other two are just as small, just as cozy, just as private and just as well padded with bedding.

Maybe, with time, the chickens will adapt to the fact that they now have more options. Or maybe they’ll sublet the other boxes to a couple of robins.