Missing chick

[Joannalooloo]

How long can a chick stay under a hen's feathers? can it be carried even though the mother hen is walking around

 

[SonnyGirl]

Chicks can squirrel under a hen really well and hide in her feathers well when sleeping.. but I do not think it could manage to stay in her feathers while she's up and down off the nest and walking around. I read your other post as well.. and I hope you find your chick! I can only offer similar advice as everyone else.. place food out in a couple of areas easily accessible by a chick... make "peeping" chick noises to try to get it to respond.. if you can make good hen noises, you might want to try that too. Look for "breaks" or holes in the enclosure.. anywhere a chick could have slipped through. Was it a chainlink fence wide enough for a chick to wiggle through?? Watch the hen closely for signs of interest, as mentioned... watch her as often as possible and try doing it without her knowing your watching too.. just in case she behaves differently in private. If you have cedar shavings and it's a light colored chick, look through the shavings. Light colored chicks can blend into shavings well. Chicks love corners. Anytime I've had chicks fall out of a nest, I would find them on the ground, in a corner, blending into the cedar. If she got outside of the enclosure somehow - then you should be checking corners she would try to hide in. They other thing they seek is warmth of course.. any warm source - light, another animal, etc. Do you have other hens? I would check them/under them just in case. Other then that - I hate to say it, but it might have been a predator :/ If the chick is alive and well, it should be peeping frantically. Try to listen around your whole property, especially in places it might have scrambled to for comfort.

 

[Joannalooloo]

It was a chicken-wire fence - the holes were quite wide :S