No groundhog needed: NY has a weather-predicting chicken

KATONAH, N.Y. (PIX11) – You may have heard about Groundhog Day, but did you know there is a weather-predicting chicken in Westchester County?

Henrietta the chicken is a feathered forecaster who has been predicting if New York will receive an early spring for the past five years. She lives at Muscoot Farm in Katonah with her farm animal friends. Her weather-predicting ceremony is on Friday.

Henrietta was selected through a rigorous audition process, the farm said.

“We interviewed cows, pigs, and even donkeys, but Henrietta just made a case. She said she came from a long line of feather forecasters,” said Jonathon Benjamin, the farm manager at Muscoot Farm. “So far her predictions have been pretty accurate for New York.”  

The process of predicting the weather:  

• Henrietta is sequestered from the rest of the animals on Thursday evening. 
• She is given food and a lovely place to rest and cluck around until the ceremony.  
• At 10 a.m. on Friday, the staff at the farm check on the Faverolles chicken, and if she has laid an egg, New York will receive an early spring. 
• If there is no egg, there will be six more weeks of winter.  

In a short video released by Westchester County Parks, Henrietta can be seen getting pumped up for her big day on Friday.   

"Muscoot Farm's Cluxatawney Henrietta continues her reign as Westchester's feathered forecaster as she prepares to predict an early spring or six more weeks of winter on Groundhog Day!" Westchester County Parks said in the video caption.

If you would like to see if New York is in for six more weeks of winter, Henrietta’s egg ceremony will be live-streamed on Facebook.  You can also visit Henrietta and her animal friends 342 days a year at Muscoot Farm.