Sleeping Arrangements

Hey Chickadees! What's going down in chicken town? Wait, only I live there (in my mind). I hope you have all been well. The chickens and I have been missing you all big time. So here we are with a fresh new blog entry for your reading enjoyment. Today we shall be discussing the chicken sleeping situation. Chickens roost when they sleep, and they like to be as high as they can get while roosting. Observe...

I found this picture on The Google. These chickens are on a roosting pole inside their coop. That is where good, normally behaving chickens should sleep. Do MY chickens do this? Let's see, shall we? 

So I went into the backyard to feed and water the hens one night and I noticed that the chickens didn't come a running when they saw me approaching with vittles, like they normally do. I could HEAR them, but I couldn't see them. Then I noticed a white blob up in the tree near their coop, and near that was a black blob, another black blob, and a reddish blob. I moved a bit closer...

 They were in a tree fifteen feet off the ground. Of course. 

 Here's a nice shot of their fluffy bird butts from underneath the tree. They all looked quite pleased with themselves for having made it up there. 

Look at Sunshine. She's practically crowing with pride. I hope she doesn't actually crow because that would make her a rooster and roosters are feathery noise demons. And egg fertilizers. You'll notice also that there are only four of them. Where is Clucky?

She was on the ground and while I was watching she managed to make it onto a lower branch of the tree while the other chickens watched from above and snickered oh so rudely. She made it into the crux of the tree but then took an unfortunate tumble back to earth. Poor Clucky! 

Don't worry. I was right there to console her and give her a pep talk. Once that was done we ate some grapes and tossed a couple of pine cones at the other chickens for revenge. Then I tossed her up into the tree and there she stayed...until the morning. 

So there you have it. My hens prefer sleeping in a tree rather than the coop we made for them. SO I'm going to start working on the bigger, more luxurious coop that they will be spending the winter in. I'm determined to make them LOVE it and want to be in it all the time. Does Pottery Barn make nesting boxes? I'll look into it. At the very least I'll have some afghans in there, and scented candles, and copies of Mother Earth News and People. 

Take it easy Peeps!! 

xoxo