Lost chicken - tips on how to help her find her way home? She's home!

Today one of my bantams (ee x d'uccle, very pretty gold and lavender girl) flew over the run fence when she got startled by my spreading straw. I didn't know she could fly that well. The dogs chased her around and she got in the corner behind my garden shed where the dogs can't get. When I went to find her, I tried to pick her up gently and as she is skittish, she jumped up and ran into the narrow space between the neighborhood backyard fences. I'm beating myself for not just grabbing her quickly...

I spent the next hour and a half (until dark) going to my various neighbors and in their yards to try to find her. I did finally spot her in the space between the fences, but couldn't get to her and she ran further back in. I tried chucking some small rocks to get her to run back to my property.

Eventually I hand-sawed away part of the laurel hedge in my yard to be able to climb into the space with a flashlight, but she was no longer there. She could have gotten out two maybe three different places into neighbors' yards, or she may have gone back into mine before I began sawing and hid beneath the garden shed for the night.

I'm hoping when she hears the rest of her flock in the morning that she makes an appearance so I can catch her and put her back - is this likely chicken behavior? First, I'm hoping she makes it through the night safely. She seemed to do a good job of finding a safe hiding spot and sitting still in it when I was searching for her.

Most of my neighbors are already alerted to keep an eye out for her.

Any suggestions on what else to do to try to get her to come back home or catch her? I'm thinking of getting a small animal trap to put in that space with some chicken feed, maybe she'll go back into it if she's not hiding in my yard.

BTW, the dogs' door to the yard is out of commission until I can find her so that they don't get to her first!

You sound like you're doing all you really can. Hopefully your girl will find her way home!

Quote:
I agree.

Good luck.

I agree-you have done all you can. My guess is she will show up. I am amazed at how far my chickens went when they escaped and I am sure they would have made it back. I drive pass a house on a well travelled road where there are many chickens in the yard with no fence and I have yet to see one in the road--even with roadkill right there. So, my limited experience is that chickens are home bodies and she will return.
Let us know.

Good luck with finding her. I'd go out when it got dark and look for her roosting somewhere. They can't see well in the dark and you'd be able to catch her pretty easily if you can spot her.

Thanks everyone...I went out to the run today to let the chickens out of the coop and there she was in the run! I guess she came home and flew back over the 6' fence to get in.

She's a good hider (once I thought she had escaped when she was hiding in the bamboo) so I guess that helped her make it through the night.

I have two toe blisters and access to in between the fences thanks to her.

Quote:
YAY! I'm happy she came back!

Once upon a time....my chickens were out free ranging while I was at the grocery store. When I got home, dead chickens were scattered over three acres, killed by my own dog who went over two fences to get to them. The farthest body was 600 feet from the coop. I picked up eighteen, which left six unaccounted for. Over the next three days, they appeared, one by one. On the third morning, I looked out the front door to see the last hen walking down my driveway, a little lame and bedraggled, but headed for home.
If they can *get* home, they usually will.

Yeah!!!

So glad she came back. It's easy to say she will when it's not my chicken. However, I laugh when people ask how you get a chicken to go into its coop at night. I don't think you could keep them out unless you tried. The first day I brought home the rooster I knew nothing of chickens and had no fencing at that point. I just let him out and he followed me around. Later he found the girls and he knew where home was. I wondered if he would "run away" but my gut said he wouldn't. Yep, they are home bodies as far as I can tell--then too I don't have cats or dogs run away and I once brought a stray cat home and put it on the front porch that night without a carrier. It was still sitting there in the morning.