Hen Chronicles: Now I lay me down to sleep . . .

I sometimes wonder what rhyme or reason dictates how our three hens configure themselves at bedtime.

Except on those rare occasions when Nellie decides to spend the night in the nest box, Snow, Nellie and Hope share a perch that runs along a north/south axis in the coop, just below the peak of the roof. They snuggle on this roost side by side, and usually wing to wing.

Sometimes, one or two of the hens will bed down on the roost facing west, but for the most part, all three chickens face east. And nine times out of 10, the lineup finds Snow in the middle, with Nellie and Hope on either side of her.

As her name suggests, Snow is an all-white Plymouth Rock. She's our senior hen, at an estimated four years of age, and the one we've had the longest. She’s also at the top of the pecking order. Nellie and Hope are three-year-old Rhode Island Reds, so both share the rust-red coloring of that breed. Liz and I can differentiate between Nellie and Hope because we see them every day, but to a stranger, they probably would appear to be interchangeable.

It’s hard to believe that the predictable and recurring sleeping arrangements, with Snow flanked by the Reds, are random; there's so little variation from one night to the next. Instead, we have consistency. Perhaps the Reds, recognizing Snow’s seniority, like to sleep next to her, and Snow finds herself in the middle because that’s the only way both Nellie and Hope can be adjacent to her. Or maybe there’s some other explanation that defies human understanding.

Whatever the cause, the placement makes for an attractive tableau. Thanks to the contrast in coloring, I think of the display as Snow and her court. The large and strikingly white queen of the roost has a lady-in-waiting on either side of her.