Chickens in the Rain

After a very dry month we finally got some good, soaking rain this week. In general the chickens don't like rain very much. When its raining they stay under the porch where its snug and dry. Until the sun goes down. Then they ignore all of the warm, dry perches under the porch, in the coop or in their covered run and insist on sleeping on the porch railing behind the grill. In the rain. In the winter when its cold we go outside after they have fallen asleep and transfer them to their coop so that we don't wake up to chick-sicles but now that its warmed up enough that they aren't in danger we have been letting them stay there. Moving them in the middle of the night tends to stress them out and locking them in the coop together when they don't want to be there has led to some unfortunate bullying and pecking. So during the rain storm earlier this week I just let them be, but not before I snuck a few photos. The blob of feathers near the bottom is Prudence with her head stuck underneath Imogene. They do this whenever it rains and sometimes its a different chicken who gets to shelter her head. We suspect it has something to do with which chicken is head of the hen house that week.

p.s. because it was dusk I couldn't get a clear photo without using the flash, but with the flash the background just turned black. So here is one of each.