Gallus gallus are spook easily by sudden changes . Where I live , we have n’t had much of a traditional winter , but last hebdomad , the sky fell . In fact , an entire foot of sky mob up around my chicken cage . My dear depart Red Star Mabel would have trudged through the snow like an Arctic IE , but since she ’s been gone , the other old girls have gone soft . Who can pick them , really ? Even the humanity hid inside last calendar week like the volaille blot out inside their coop .
A friend mentioned to me yesterday that one of her chicken annul the snowfall and ice on the ground by fly up into a tree . Despite the below - zero wind chills overnight , the hen expend two day up in the tree refusing to come down .
My own adventures out to the coop through the snow to check on the flock left a decent squeeze trail where the Gallus gallus could walk to the back steps for treats and kitchen scrap . The kids and the cad aid leave trail through the balance of the yard , too . I tried to coax the flock out a dyad times early in the week , but they would n’t budge .
The hens and the fryer spend nearly two full days inside the hencoop , even with the door of the discharge open to freedom . I at long last scattered some remnant vegetables in their direction , and three pullet jumped at the temptation , flying unsteadily . Each of them shore in deep snow ; not one landed on the press paths we ’d stomp out for them . I affirm I heardthunkswhen they landed , but I might have guess it . For a second , they looked like duck floating on water , not chickens stuck in snowflake .
I let the hens sit down where they set ashore for a few min to see if they ’d move on their own or make a ruckus . They did n’t . The female child just sat there . Perhaps it felt prosperous to them , but the snow was so deep where they ’d shoot down — their shanks and toes not long enough to touch the patio beneath them — they’d never have made it out on their own . So I pulled on my iron heel and rescued them , one by one , each one flapping and squawking at me as I recall her to the hencoop .
The next twenty-four hour period , our Easter Egger seemed fed up with continue indoors . She was the only chicken to leave the coop that twenty-four hour period , but she avoided the snow . She fly up onto the coop , then onto the northward - facing privacy fence . I guess a chicken ’s got to perch when a Gallus gallus ’s stick to roost .
On Sunday , a full calendar week into what seemed like an entire winter ’s worth of atmospheric condition , the hens come up snow- and ice - free areas in the sunshine to hang out . The whole flock stood on the back steps for most of the solar day . Every clock time I peeked outside , they would tantrum with clucks and squawk , as if they ’re the only ones whose normal activities were derailed by the winter weather .
Did wintertime storms affect you this year ? What kind of wacky behavior did you notice in your stack ?
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