Chickens coming out at night.

[Aapomp831]

Chickens do have tapetum lucidum. So they should have better night vision than we do. My free range flock can see at night well enough to fly back to roost at night in the trees if something spooks them. And my heritage turkeys are active and forage at night at random times, which surprises me. So did cortunix quail when I kept them.

https://www.chickenguard.com/chickens-return-coop/

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

https://www.chickenguard.com/chickens-return-coop/

*Not trying to be a jerk to you as to how I’m responding. Just proving a point that much of what we think we know about chickens is internet garbage.

So...

It must be true because that website says it. And this must not be eyeshine in a chicken.

 

[Stephnrobby]

well there's the problem right there, those chickens are looking for peach trees. Living in Chilton county Alabama without peach trees in the yard has them confused. why would someone go to the trouble of wanting fresh eggs from us chickens and not want fresh peaches. They are putting on a night watch looking for those peach tree bandits .
Do i need to post a picture for the giant peach @ exit #212? LOL
Chilton county peaches are the best.
your chickens are moon lighting as night guards.

I do not need peach trees!

 

[David61]

I can't grow them on the coast here. you are in the best spot in the country for them.
I believe with the full moon and other lighting around , it was enough to get them moving. I know my girls are active in the wee hours of dawn.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Like I said, I'm really not trying to be a jerk to anyone. My intellectual argumentativeness is directed straight towards the bad information, not the people relying on it.

Tonight I took pictures of chickens across my farm on the roost. They all have eye shine. The games/wilds have it far more intense than the layers, but they all have it.

This pic is me spotlighting them at 15 yards away. You can see through the rain their eyes reflecting back. You can also see a turkey's eyes reflecting back on the ground underneath them.

The layers have it too but it isn't as intense. It also isn't visible from as many angles.

There were many angles it did not appear on the wyandottes while appearing on the chickens around them.

Chickens clearly have tapetum lucid. It also appears that the strength of eyeshine may vary across breeds and would suggest that quality of night vision may vary between breeds. Yet even the wyandottes have more eyeshine than a human, that is to say, they have some eyeshine where we have none.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I'll also acknowledge that I cannot rule out is that the reflection they clearly have isn't caused by a tapetum lucidem but is instead caused by a different structure such as their double retina. Even so, I can't imaging that a structure in their eye that reflects visible light isn't somehow helping their low light vision. When they're spooked off the roost into the yard at night they act consistent with being able to see by star or moonlight to either find a new roost or return to the original roost. That tells me their eyeshine is probably doing something for them.

 

[Jeanw]

Maybe the chickens are being chased out or scared out of the coop by something during the night?

 

[SulkyBantam]

No they are not.

Is there not a shutable coop door