Bad Habits & Racial Memory

Poof, our White Crested Black Polish hen, has managed to start a fad amongst her sisters.

She likes to perch each evening in the nectarine tree, in a spot where she can see the sun go down, and watch the sunset. Afterwards she jumps down and goes to roost in the coop, where she is SUPPOSED to. Soulful little thing, for a chicken...

Unfortunately, several of the OTHER hens have decided that this looks both keen and fun, and have taken to perching in the same tree, only HIGHER and they don't get down and go in like they are supposed to, little brats.

This results in me shaking nectarine tree branches each night until it rains angry hens and cussing Poof for starting such a dorky fad.

Also, somehow a few of the chickens, some of which were not hatched by us and came along AFTER we moved the coop door clear to the other end of the run, inevitably will go to the OLD coop door and frantically run back and forth, wanting to be let in there. It's like a racial memory and kinda spooky, seeing as how we closed that door more than a year ago and they have NEVER even seen it open. It's made of wood & hardware cloth, just like the rest of the coop so it is not obviously a door, either. And the NEW coop door is a steel mesh security door.

Weird...