The hens did not want to come out of the coop this morning. Jon says I should leave them alone, let them decide when to come out and when to stay in.
We joke that I’m like someone’s mother telling their kids to go out and play. (Although I don’t think that happens much anymore.)
I guess if Jon and I had kids, this is the kind of thing we’d argue about.
I have a few reasons for wanting the hens out of the coop. One is that it gets messy very quickly when they spend a few days inside. And the other is that I really think it’s best for them to be outside when they can be. There are enough cold and snowy days when they don’t have a choice.
And honestly I do have this neurotic fear that they’ll go mad if they have to spend too many days in such a small space together (remember my Zombie Hens, that long cold winter in 2014). But that probably says more about me than them.
I feel like I’m just alerting them to possibility of spending the day out of the coop. It’s not as if they can’t go back in whenever they want.
The temperature was in the low thirties this morning, and that’s like a spring day for a hen. It’s the snow that makes them reluctant to come out of the coop, if they can’t see the ground, they don’t want to jump from the roosting bar.
So I shoveled away the snow and threw some straw on the ground. Then I gave them a little nudge, kind of like a border collie herding sheep. Once two of them were out, I knew the third would follow (also like sheep).
I don’t know if the hens were happier out of the coop then staying in all day. I don’t even know if hens do happy. But they seemed content to me, going back and forth between the lilac bush and scratching at the ground under the bird feeder, eating what the birds dropped.
I did get a few pictures of them huddled together before they left the coop.
They are gorgeous Maria.
:)