Chicken Nightclub?

One of our chickens (the lowest in the pecking order) has taken to sleeping out overnight.

Tuesday, when I went to feed the chooks, she was outside the coop and wanting to get back in for breakfast. I figured that she had missed the lockup time and had spent the night in the trees near our property.

Last night, she was not in bed for role call either. I walked around our property trying to find her and thought that, perhaps, she had suffered the same mysterious fate as our rooster, Raj. I left the coop open until well after dark and then closed the hatch so that no nasty visitors invaded the rest of the chickens while they slept.

This morning, however, she was outside the coop waiting to be let back in again.

Maybe she has found herself a chicken night-club and is staying out all hours partying it up with her chooky mates. When she returns in the morning, she looks rather dishevelled.

She has obviously found somewhere else to sleep for the night and, apparently, is beginning to form a habit. I need to stop this habit before it becomes ingrained as the coop is the safest place for her to sleep. Today, and for the next few days, the chickens will be in lock-down. No chickens in or out! There is plenty of room in the coop for all of the chickens, so it isn’t likely to be a problem of crowding.