Chooks locked out!

On arriving home at about 7.30pm on Saturday evening we discovered that the knot had slipped again on the auto-door and the chickens were locked out and sitting in the run. The weather was foul, lashing with wind and rain. Leia was on the run perch and Molly and Kiev were huddled under the coop. We opened the door for them and expected them to go into the coops and out of the horrible weather. What we had failed to appreciate is that chickens are simple creatures who have a very strict timescale related to daylight. They had missed their opporutunity for going into the coop at dusk and were therefore going to sit tight until day break! Before we turned in we physically lifted Molly (she's the only one we can easily catch!) and put her into the coop, figuring that the other two would follow her in there.....at 2am I came down to see and Leia and Kiev had not moved an inch, Leia was clinging on to the run perch, being blown all over the place and getting soaking wet. Stubborn creatures! They didn't relent until day break, when they finally went into the coop.