Really dumb hen

[alwaystj9]

I have a Cinnamon Queen from a mixed order of chicks in early March. So she's not a baby. This hen has lived in the same coop, same 12 hour free range, same bunch of birds but after all this time she still cannot figure out how to get in the coop each evening. She'll run back and forth, seeing her buddies eating supper, and cannot figure out how to turn the corner and walk in the gate. Even if she's with a bunch of others, she changes direction halfway down the fenceline and gets confused. Every evening I have to take the fish net and go fetch her and bring her in. I have even tried leaving the gate open hoping she'll figure it out but in the morning I find her huddled next to the fence, 2-3 feet from the open gate. Tomorrow she leaves for a new flock with someone whose birds never get to leave the coop/run.
Is she truly just a really dumb hen? or is there something else going on here?

 

[Logar]

$20 on her just being an idiot.
Even my chicken that happily walked up to a 90 lb deer just to peck it on the nose is able to figure out how to walk around a door

 

[rosemarythyme]

Some are just... less bright than others. I definitely notice that some birds have a much easier time navigating out of the run if they realize everyone else is outside (it has 3 gates, oh no!) and some birds just cannot figure it out without being herded towards the exit.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yup. There are "dumb clucks." We have two, appropriately named Dingbat and Dipstick. They finally did figure out the mysteries of the invisible gates, for the most part. They are two years old.