nighttime chicken party in an unlit coop? Is this normal?

[msjones]

This morning around 5:00 -- still completely dark-- my husband saw the girls up and about out in the run. (Yes, the run is fully enclosed and as critter-proof as we can get it...) Our coop/run is not lit. The sun doesn't come up lately until around 7:00.

I thought they were night blind. How and why would they be up so long before sunrise?

Our neighbor's famous barking dog does tend to have a barking spell around 5:00, but we didn't hear one today.

There is a street lamp one lot away, so it's not completely dark. Would that be the reason? Or should I suspect that something got in there and woke them? There was no evidence of any critter getting in.

Anyone else have chickens up and at it in the dark?

 

[Plain Old Dee]

I frequently hear my roo crowing when I leave for work in the mornings. I have to leave by 6:00 a.m. and it's still pitch black. I'm pretty sure he's telling his girls to get their lazy bums out of bed - if Mom has to get up and go to work, so do they!

 

[msjones]

Do hens do this, too? And, really, what does that say about their 'night-blindness?'

 

[neuchicontheblock]

The nites I get up because I can't sleep (eggopause) the light in the kitchen wakes up the roos at 3 AM. They either can hear or see the light thru the window. They cut it out after a while...I think because the hens beat him to shut up. (Picture a hen in a housecoat and rollers yanking the blankets away from him after giving him a resounding slap!

)

 

[Uzuri]

Tell 'em Halloween was weeks ago and it's time to quick playing vampire chickens

Or maybe they're just Twilight fans and disappointed that you didn't take them to the new movie.

 

[Rangely]

I go out at the crack of dawn, sometimes just before, and my one hen has already laid. Every day - same thing. I'm thinking she sleep walks, or I guess it would be sleep laying.

 

[msjones]

Well, as if the early rising phenomena weren't enough, today ONE OF MY HENS CROWED AT DAWN.

This is NOT what I need with my chicken-averse neighbor.

I'm CERTAIN she is a hen -- looks almost identical to the other 2 buffs her age. It was sort of a pathetic crow-ish crow, but there was no doubt. We could hear it, but I wouldn't call it loud.

I think my neighbor might call it loud, though...

 

[msjones]

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I'll have to share the vampire chicken idea with my boys. They'll like that.

It is a little creepy to see them out there in the dark...

 

[msjones]

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So, chickens aren't night-blind after all?

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
So, chickens aren't night-blind after all?

I don't know about chickens, but I can tell you that my parrots, while they will completely go silent if I turn the light off, can and will still continue to climb about in their cages...though they will take a huge fright if something unexpected happens while they are in the dark. So they can see but seem a lot more prone to panic when it is dark. Especially the African Grey.