- Jul 9, 2012
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Hello BYC community! I've been keeping chickens for a year now and am smitten with the birds! I've been reading threads on the forum for a few months now and am compelled to join because I am trying to make sense of something very strange about one of my young hens.
At 11 pm tonight my boyfriend and I were alarmed to hear a hen squawking wildly outside of the coop somewhere. We rushed out instantly with flashlights, sprinting down the hill towards the noise, howling to scare off the predator. But we didn't see a predator, or the hen, and started searching the edge of the woods and our neighbors field for signs of either one, or perhaps other roosting birds who weren't in the coop. Nothing. We met our new neighbor with his flashlight who "heard one hell of a noise" and after some small talk and looking around we start to walk back to our homes. Then we heard her shrieking weirdly again, and rushed up the hill where in the middle of the lawn where the chickens *never* hang out, we found Audrey the four month old Easter Egger crouched low on the grass and yelling her head off.
We picked her up and she screamed like I have never heard a chicken scream, but after a few seconds we shushed her and calmed her. We examined her everywhere, but there were no wounds. I went to the coop and did a head count. She was the only one outside -- out of almost 50 birds! When I shut them up a few hours earlier, I saw no birds still outside anywhere in the vicinity. We took her inside to examine her again and observe her, and she has no injuries that I can discern.
What was this bird doing, by herself in the neighbors yard, in the middle of the night? What was with the strange prolonged shreiking? She acted as if she was waking up from an awful nightmare... I mean, can chickens sleepwalk and have nightmares?
The strangest thing is that, though she's never been inside our house before or been handled much, she is suddenly like a lap dog, obsessed with snuggling into our sweaters and being pet, happily cooing now and then.
I think I'm going to rename Audrey "Oddrey".
At 11 pm tonight my boyfriend and I were alarmed to hear a hen squawking wildly outside of the coop somewhere. We rushed out instantly with flashlights, sprinting down the hill towards the noise, howling to scare off the predator. But we didn't see a predator, or the hen, and started searching the edge of the woods and our neighbors field for signs of either one, or perhaps other roosting birds who weren't in the coop. Nothing. We met our new neighbor with his flashlight who "heard one hell of a noise" and after some small talk and looking around we start to walk back to our homes. Then we heard her shrieking weirdly again, and rushed up the hill where in the middle of the lawn where the chickens *never* hang out, we found Audrey the four month old Easter Egger crouched low on the grass and yelling her head off.
We picked her up and she screamed like I have never heard a chicken scream, but after a few seconds we shushed her and calmed her. We examined her everywhere, but there were no wounds. I went to the coop and did a head count. She was the only one outside -- out of almost 50 birds! When I shut them up a few hours earlier, I saw no birds still outside anywhere in the vicinity. We took her inside to examine her again and observe her, and she has no injuries that I can discern.
What was this bird doing, by herself in the neighbors yard, in the middle of the night? What was with the strange prolonged shreiking? She acted as if she was waking up from an awful nightmare... I mean, can chickens sleepwalk and have nightmares?
The strangest thing is that, though she's never been inside our house before or been handled much, she is suddenly like a lap dog, obsessed with snuggling into our sweaters and being pet, happily cooing now and then.
I think I'm going to rename Audrey "Oddrey".
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. 
