For the last few days the weather has been horrendous. It has rained all day and all night and although the entire run is roofed the rain blows in through the sides and most of the run ends up wet.
It has been cold and wet and miserable. Toffee has taken to perching in the chicken shed in the afternoons. I have never known this before and was a bit worried about her. She seems absolutely fine and I wonder if she is just feeling her age.
Although we have only had both Toffee and Emerald for three years we didn’t really know their age when we got them. The farmer used game birds as his broodies for his wyndottes but was happy to let us have a couple as he had plenty of new game chicks.
Toffee always looked like an older bird and we felt she had a bit of a grandmother air about her. She may have already been several years old when we got her.
Toffee has been spending her afternoons here
Are you looking at me!
Just chilling
I think perhaps as the outside perches have been wet she likes to perch here late afternoons as it is warm and dry. I have never known the girls to go indoors during the day before apart from to have a brief scratch in the shavings.
I will be keeping a close eye on Toffee but she seems fine in herself and only does this late afternoon, before bedtime. Maybe she feels she has had enough by then and needs to retire early. Maybe this means if the little girls were cold in winter they may do the same thing.
If it was really cold I would pin the shed door open and then if any girls wanted to go in and shelter it would be lighter than with the door shut.
At the moment though I will leave it closed because if Toffee is happy to settle in here a bit early then I think that it is okay to let her decide and leave her to do what feels comfortable for her. As always I will be keeping a close eye on her.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
If i was a hen, i would want to get out of the rain and cold. But as you said this is not
what they do, hope all is well.
It has been extremely wet this week but it is also surprising because they don’t usually go in during the day. The chicken shed is probably more appealing to them than the chicken coop was though and Toffee is always the first one to go in every day. I will be watching over her.
My older hens do just the same; it’s like they’re sitting out the winter and avoiding the dampness outside. It’s funny, as the youngsters who might go inside in bleaching rain never go onto the perches – although, I suppose, they could be ‘bullied off’. I wouldn;t think there’s anything intrinsic to be worried about but you are absolutely right that, when we buy mature hens, we really have no idea just how old they are.
That’s actually really reassuring to hear.
All mine have been spending quite a lot of time in their Cube this winter – especially on windy days. Even when their gate’s open to free range. They’ve never done that before either
Oh well, perhaps all our girls are just fed up with these horrible weather conditions. I feel better knowing it’s not just Toffee wanting the comfort of a warm and dry perch.