Can she see her food?

[JessicaEm]

I have one chicken, about two months old, who is the sole survivor of a possum attack that claimed the lives of her 5 friends last week. Perhaps because she is the only one left, I noticed that she doesn't much touch her food at night in her coop, or even in the day time in her coop. But when I open the large door of the coop, she goes right to her food and begins chowing down. The coop has a couple of places that are open to light (but VERY well secured from predators, especially since the attack!), and there is a pop door open during the day to let her into her run. But I wonder if she can't see her food inside the coop because it is somewhat dark in there. The whole place is flooded with light when I open that big door, but it doesn't stay open.

I have learned that chickens don't have night vision, but I thought with little peeps of light, she would at least be able to see her food during the day. Now I'm not so sure. Thoughts?

 

[sourland]

Chickens don't eat at night - they sleep. If she is eating when she comes out to the run, there is nothing to worry about.

 

[JessicaEm]

Well, I hadn't been keeping food in the run, because it's not totally shielded from the rain, and I didn't want it to get wet. I was just leaving the food and water in the coop.

When I talked about opening up the side of the coop, that is not normal operations. I only open that to change out water or food, or to clean. The side of the coop is closed 99% of the time. So if it's closed and dark in there, with daylight coming in from a couple of vents and the pop door, do you think it could be too dark for her to see her bowl? I would think for a human, you could see the bowl with that kind of light, even though it would be dim, but maybe chicken vision is much worse.

 

[yo burrill]

If they were attacked in the coop she is probably to scared still to eat inside. When you are there you are the one "on watch" so that she can eat.

 

[Den in Penn]

I think you could be right about the coop being to dark. If you can find a way to let more light in do so.

 

[ChickenJerk]

The o'possum was probably eating the feed during the night.
And it is pretty rare for for an o'possum to successfully attack all but a very young chicken unless she is a mother with young of her own to feed.

 

[JessicaEm]

They were attacked in the coop; maybe she is still traumatized!

I do think the possum is what killed them, mostly because the next night, we set a live trap and trapped a possum. The chickens who were killed were all pretty young; only two months old. They had been in their coop only a week or so. My husband and I are new to chicken raising, and we found two possible points of entry for whatever killed the chicks. Both points were small, but big enough for the possum we caught. There were no holes dug or marks where something larger would have had to force its way in. Also, the chicks were gutted, and in at least two instances, the cavities created in their bodies were the size and shape of the snout of the possum we caught.

In any event, I will also try to figure out a way to create more light in there while still keeping the coop secure. (And we did secure the two gaps we found in the coop after the attack.)