do chickens have nightmares?

[whoop whoop]

Its 2 am in the morning and my Roo starts up very loudly. Its pitch black outside and I am lying in my warm bed going thru the options. Can't be food because they have. Maybe they are cold, it is Winter, no, they are very warm. Maybe its a predator, no way its a house with a door, maybe one got in during the day. So I go and check, the night is silent, not a peep all self respecting birds are in their nests, so he is not competing with anything There is not a star in the sky and I am tottering around in the dark. I open the door, put the night light on and there is everyone tucked up in their boxes. Henry opens one eye and looks at me, now I don;t speak chicken yet but that look definitely said 'Hey we're sleeping, go away'.

 

[MagicPidge]

that look definitely said 'Hey we're sleeping, go away'.

Ah, ye olde stink eye. My chickens used to sing phantom egg songs (by the time they were all 4-5 years old and had essentially stopped laying) almost every day. One would start and set them all off.

Once as I was checking (in case it was a predator), I witnessed a hen go through the whole egg laying routine - song and all - with no eggs produced. I guess that doesn't really count as a 'chicken nightmare', but it'd be interesting to see how many other hens do this. Ghost eggs?