Cluxatawney Henrietta Predicts Early Spring At Muscoot Farm

KATONAH, NY — Move over, Punxsutawney Phil, and your six more weeks of winter. There's a local prognosticator who is taking issue with your forecast.

Cluxatawney Henrietta laid an egg Tuesday and that, according to Muscoot Farm Curator Jonathon Benjamin, means the Hudson Valley can look forward to an early spring.

This was the third year in a row that Henrietta, in honor of Groundhog Day, predicted that spring was on its way.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow in Pennsylvania Tuesday morning after emerging from his burrow to signal that winter will continue for six more weeks.

"As you know Punxsutawney Phil is a groundhog who has predicted the weather in Pennsylvania and around the world for years and years and years," Benjamin said. "We don't have a groundhog on the farm, so we use the next best thing.

"We have Henrietta, the chicken," he said.

Henrietta is a 3-1/2-year-old Ameraucana chicken and is quite docile, Benjamin said, except sometimes when her feathered feet are touched.

He said that this is the third annual ceremony in which Henrietta has laid an egg — a blue egg — the morning of Feb. 2 to signify that there will be an early spring.

The Ameraucana chicken was domesticated and developed in the United States around 1970 and was derived from the Araucana chicken found in Chile, Benjamin said.

The breed's distinguishing characteristics include a beard and earmuffs. They lay eggs whose shells are a shade of blue.

The Alfred B. DelBello Muscoot Farm, a Westchester County Park, is located at 51 Route 100 in Katonah.

Watch the ceremony below.

Via Westchester County Parks YouTube page.