The monster in the chicken house....

Funny story.

Monday I opened the door to go out and let the chickens out of their little house for the day, and into their run. My usual morning routine.
As I walked down the stairs and looked out to the chicken house, I see NO chickens.

What??!

Usually they are down from their roost and impatiently waiting for me to get there so they can run out and flap their wings and get a good stretch in.
But none...and it's eerily quiet down there.
I'm thinking, "Oh, hell...what's happened? Did something get in there and get ALL of them?"
So naturally, I hurry a little bit more, which for me is not very fast.
Finally I arrive, and open the run, go in and I see chicken feet still up in the roost.
I look in, and all the chickens are fine, but still up on their roost.

This is NOT NORMAL.

I stick my head in, asking them "what's the matter, guys?"
No one answers me, but they do make a little noise at this point.
So, I don't see anything out of the normal, I leave their house door open as usual and go back in the house, thinking they'll be out and about soon.

Around 10 am, I look out to check on them, and they're still not out!

What is going on?!!!

I call John.  He advises that there must be a snake or something in the pen and they won't come down.  I tell John that I stuck my head in there, not even thinking about anything like that.

(At this point, I'm thinking I'm a real dummy.  What if there had been a snake in there!!!)

I go back out, get the hoe (as a weapon) and start raking through their bedding, about 4 inches of shaved wood and sawdust.

Nothing.  

Nothing inside the roost area, nothing in the chicken house, nothing. I start looking around and notice......

The culprit!!!

Yes, it's a black flashlight.  I had left it in there the night before. Sitting on one of the chicken house braces.

Once it was gone, out they came.

It took them about 4 days to shake off their fear, and things are back to normal now.
And now you and I both know why they are called

"chickens."