Keeping Chickens - Unexpected Lesson #2

Every night I close up the door between the run and the chicken yard (to keep predators out) and generally, just for fun, peek into the coop to see the girls on their roost.

This is what I saw the other night:
But, wait! Don't we have five chickens?

There's not really anywhere for a chicken to hide in the run or the yard - or the coop for that matter - but I checked anyway.

Nope, no chicken.

So then I figured that I just counted wrong, so back to the coop.

Nope, four chickens.

And then I saw it. A chicken toe right above my head.

Annie was perched above the door - about three feet above the other chickens.

Apparently, according to a very informative chicken site, the supreme, ruler-of-the-coop must show her dominance by roosting higher than the lowly, not-supreme chickens.

And Annie declared herself Supreme Ruler back when she was nothing more than a puffball.

Lesson learned: Supreme Ruler needs her own higher roost.