Hen Chronicles: The answer may be blowin' in the wind

The day got off to an odd start this morning. Not unprecedented, by any means, but unusual nonetheless.

On a typical day, Snow and Nellie will run down the ramp and into their pen as soon as I unlatch the coop door. More often than not, I have to nudge Hope to get her off the roost, but she then heads outside without further ado. Once “the girls” are in the pen, they dig right into their breakfast of pellets and scratch.

Not this day.

Nellie and Snow raced into the pen like usual, but instead of getting down to business they strutted, clucking nervously and keeping a keen eye on their surroundings. Meanwhile, Hope was reluctant to leave the coop even after I “persuaded” her to hop down from the roost. Instead, she just peeked out until I gave her a gentle tap on the fanny.

One possibility is that the hens saw, heard or smelled a wild animal, perhaps a skunk or a raccoon, prowling around outside before I arrived on the scene to let the girls out. Raccoons are known chicken predators, and although the experts say a skunk is unlikely to kill an adult hen, it does happen. In any case, skunks are attracted to coops because they love to steal eggs.

But this strikes me as a more likely scenario. I noticed a long time ago that chickens do not like windy conditions, and it was quite breezy early this morning. Breezy and cold: 25 degrees at dawn. By the time I went back out to check on the hens an hour later, the wind had picked up and all three chickens had retreated into the coop. Snow was perched on the roost; Nellie and Hope were roaming around on the floor, talking softly.

Once I saw that the chickens were okay, I raced back into the house. I'm not a big fan of a chill wind, first thing in the morning. Just like the chickens.