У бабушки во дворе бегал цыплёнок, а второй прятался у двери курятника.

In Russian, у + genitive often means at someone’s place / in someone’s possession / near someone.

So у бабушки literally looks like by grandmother, but in context it commonly means:

• at grandma’s
• in grandma’s yard/household

Here it combines naturally with во дворе:

• У бабушки во дворе = In grandma’s yard / At grandma’s, in the yard

Also note the case:

• бабушка → бабушки after у because у requires the genitive.

Both come from the preposition в meaning in, but Russian often uses во instead of в for easier pronunciation before certain consonant combinations.

So:

• в + дворе would be awkward to pronounce
• therefore Russian uses во дворе

This is a pronunciation-driven variant, not a different meaning.

Compare:

• в доме = in the house
• во дворе = in the yard

дворе is the prepositional case of двор.

The phrase во дворе answers where?, so after в/во with location, Russian uses the prepositional:

• двор → во дворе = in the yard

This is different from motion into a place, where в usually takes the accusative:

• во двор = into the yard
• во дворе = in the yard

This is about two different verbs:

• бегать = to run around, run repeatedly, move about
• бежать = to run in one direction, to be running somewhere

So:

• бегал цыплёнок suggests the chick was running around
• бежал цыплёнок would suggest it was running somewhere in a more directed sense

In this sentence, the image is of one chick moving around the yard while the other was hiding, so бегал fits better.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject is цыплёнок (chick), which is a masculine singular noun, so the verb is:

• бегал = masculine singular past

Compare:

• цыплёнок бегал = the chick was running around
• курица бегала = the hen was running around
• цыплята бегали = the chicks were running around

Russian often leaves out a noun when it is clearly understood from context.

So:

• а второй literally = and the second one
• the omitted noun is цыплёнок

In full, it would be something like:

• а второй цыплёнок прятался...

But repeating цыплёнок is unnecessary, because the meaning is already obvious.

А often connects two clauses by showing a contrast or comparison, even when both things are simply happening at the same time.

Here:

• one chick was running around
• а the second was hiding

So а works like:

• while
• whereas
• and meanwhile

Using и would sound more like simple addition:

• and

But а is better because the sentence contrasts the two chicks’ different actions.

Прятался comes from прятаться, meaning to hide.

The -ся ending often marks a reflexive verb. In many cases, it does not mean a literal English reflexive like hide himself, but it is simply part of the verb’s normal dictionary form.

So:

• прятать = to hide something
• прятаться = to hide / to hide oneself

Examples:

• Он прятал игрушку. = He was hiding the toy.
• Он прятался. = He was hiding.

In your sentence:

• второй прятался = the second one was hiding

Here у means by / near.

The noun after у goes into the genitive case, so:

• дверь → у двери = by the door / near the door

So:

• у двери курятника = by the door of the chicken coop

This is another example of у + genitive, but this time it means physical location near something, not at someone’s place.

Because дверь is being specified by another noun: the door of the chicken coop.

In Russian, this kind of of relationship is usually shown by the genitive case:

• курятник = chicken coop
• дверь курятника = the door of the chicken coop

Then the whole phrase becomes:

• у двери курятника = by the door of the chicken coop

So there are two genitives in a row here, but for different reasons:

• у двери: genitive required by у
• курятника: genitive meaning of the coop

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and this sentence uses a natural descriptive order.

Current order:

• У бабушки во дворе бегал цыплёнок, а второй прятался у двери курятника.

This puts the setting first:

• At grandma’s, in the yard...

That sounds very natural in storytelling.

You could also say:

• Цыплёнок бегал у бабушки во дворе, а второй прятался у двери курятника.

That is still grammatical, but it shifts attention slightly toward цыплёнок first.

Russian word order often helps manage:

• what is already known
• what is new information
• what the speaker wants to emphasize

Not exactly.

Цыплёнок means:

• chick
• a baby chicken

It does not normally mean an adult chicken.

Related words:

• курица = hen / chicken
• петух = rooster
• цыплёнок = chick
• цыплята = chicks

So the sentence is specifically about little chicks, not adult chickens.

Yes, it is useful and important for pronunciation.

• цыплёнок is pronounced with ё, roughly tsy-pLYO-nak
• the stress falls on лё

In printed Russian, ё is sometimes written as е, so you may also see:

• цыпленок

But the correct pronunciation is still with ё.

For learners, keeping ё helps avoid mistakes in pronunciation and stress.