Last night as the chickens were putting themselves to bed, something was off.
Every night we check in on the flock via our run and coop cams. The six older Poop Troop members file into the bigger Eglu Pro coop, and the four Baby Squad members file into the Eglu Cube. Easy peasy, usually.
But last night the Baby Squad were stalling hard. No one wanted to go in. All of them were milling about taking turns jumping up to the coop door, peeking in, then booking it outta there. I feared that maybe a weasel or mink had figured out how to get in, or perhaps a rat or mouse.
So I checked the coop cam.
The problem? Misty was in the Baby Squad coop.
And she wasn’t letting anyone else in.
She guarded the door like a fierce yet differently-abled dragon guards her hoard. She snapped her beak and growled every time a pullet approached her domain. That coop was hers for the night, younger chickens be damned.
This behavior was new from Misty, and I had to think fast because those poor kids just wanted to go to bed and not get beat up. Why did she decide to switch coops all of a sudden?
Was Misty herself getting beat up by the more able-bodied hens? Was she tired of the other coop? Was the little coop cozier than the big coop? Was she trying to recruit the young and impressionable pullets into her new cult?
But then it dawned on me – it’s molting season.
Molting season is when all bets are off, and chaos reigns the coop. Everyone is dropping feathers, hens stop laying eggs, everything hurts, and all my buds are miserable little crabapples. It’s a tough time of year for a chicken.
And when molting season hits, the order of who sleeps where gets shuffled around. The Poop Troop hens that are suffering the most sleep in their nesting boxes vs. their perches. Usually, they don’t all molt at the same time, but Misty, Nut, Meg, Diamond, and even our rooster Poopy are all molting right now.
Which brings me to the smoking gun as to why Misty left the big coop:
Meg stole her nesting box because she’s molting, and all the other ones in the big coop were taken.
Boom.
Mystery solved.
It all began to make sense as I watched Cookie try to bravely push her way into the small coop. Misty was smart for capturing the Baby Squad’s home base. It meant a big cozy nesting box for her that (for now) she wouldn’t have to scrap for, and a small army of four terrified minions.
Clever girl.
In the end, I went out and gently coaxed all four members of the Baby Squad into their coop with Misty. I monitored the coop cam feed for a bit, and once a truce was made and the birds settled in I went to bed as well. As I woke up the next day, I was relieved to see that there were no fights and no injuries. All was well. I’m still really surprised that Misty broke rank and switched coops, but as long as everyone is healthy and relatively getting along it’s all good.
The question now is whether or not Misty will return to the big coop once molting season is over. My bet is that she will stay put with the Baby Squad, but only time will tell. Oh, Misty!
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