Hen Chronicles: A special bond between two hens?

When my wife wife Liz and I spot either of our two hens in the position “modeled” at left (by a chicken I found on Google), we joke that the hen in question is in “tea cozy mode,” because the posture conjures up images of a teapot cover.

Our Rhode Island Reds, Nellie and Hope, frequently sit like this in their pen and sometimes in the coop, especially on pleasant days that are sunny but not especially hot or humid. It seems to be a relaxed pose, suggesting that the hen is calm and content.

But until this morning, I don’t think I’d ever seen our “girls’ in precisely the same configuration that greeted me when I went outside to do some yard work. Nellie and Hope were both “doing a tea cozy” at the same time, which is not unusual. What caught my eye is that I saw them in profile, sitting face-to-face, completely immobile with their beaks a mere inch or so apart.

I didn’t bother running into the house to grab my camera because I knew “the girls,” who believe humans exist for the sole purpose of feeding them, would jump up expecting a snack as soon as I got close enough to get a shot of them. You’ll have to take my word for it that they looked for all the world like something off the front of a greeting card designed to celebrate friendship.

Whether chickens are capable of love is anybody’s guess. But they certainly can be affectionate, as our duo made clear today. These two routinely sleep wing to wing, even in the warmest weather. Here's a possible explanation. At one time, Nellie and Hope were part of a flock of four hens, but a death in 2015, and another last year, has left them alone with one another. Perhaps that has created a special bond between them.