Chickens have built in GPS?

Animals are simply fascinating! Some day we might be able to understand more of nature to make sense of the odd but wonderful things we see every day on the farm.

I have read that chickens, like migratory birds, have the ability to "home in" on their nest area. It is not the structure they head to as humans would. Instead chickens can identify the exact spot on the ground where their nest was even if the next is removed.  I have read warnings about not moving a moveable chicken coop too far at a time, because the chickens will not find the structure and instead nest in a pile on the ground where the coop used to be.

Last night I witnessed this for the first time, exactly as described! Our teenage chickens are still in the moveable coop in the orchard. This week we opened the coop so they could roam, since they are large enough to fend for themselves now. The birds would put themselves to bed inside the coop each night as expected.

Then, a couple days ago, I decided to move the coop to the opposite side of the orchard, maybe 100 feet away. That was a mistake! Last night I walked by after sunset and sure enough there was a little pile of chickens all huddled together on the bare ground right where the coop used to be.  They looked so sad sleeping out in the cold under the sprinkly skies!

I had to pick up each chicken and walk it to the coop, place it inside where the food and water was. If i didn't put them inside the coop, they would turn and run back to the huddle on the ground. The last couple of them almost refused to go! It took a while to get them all settled in safe and warm.

How do they do that? It is amazing to think that these little chickens can return to within a foot of a certain spot on bare ground, even when he structure is removed.

Nature is more fascinating than we give credit. Even in all our knowledge, we still don't begin to understand some of the most simple things.