Spooked chicken

[Asweet23]

Is there a way you can move the coop? If it's not too difficult I would do that. If you can't then just get her coaxed in there tonight if you can....and close it up. She will feel safe and then hopefully come back there to roost each night. It's only a matter of time before the raccoon or whatever else finds her. I had a chicken decide to roost in the barn because she didn't like the roosters attacking her all the time....she was "roosting/sleeping" on the floor in the corner where the horses are. I shouldn't have let her do that as I knew it was dangerous and sure enough there was nothing left but feathers one morning. And she's the one I nursed back from a broken leg AND dog attack. If you can't get her coaxed into the coop this evening (maybe use bread or whatever she loves to eat), and you can't catch her to put her in there yourself, then you are left with the only option of letting her be and cross your fingers nothing happens. But like I said....something will eventually get her if she isn't locked up. There are hungry predators out there!

goodlluck!!

 

[motorrad]

Good points. I've been way too passive in protecting her.

I'll try first to plug the hole in the fence she uses to hop between yards when she's in my yard and see if that works. Hopefully she'll see the coop as the only option at nightfall.

Obviously, this is a battle of wits between one bird brain (her) and another (me). Right now, she has the upper hand. LOL.

 

[motorrad]

Whew! That took almost forever.

I finally was able to nab my chickee and put it into her coop.

She was not the least bit happy with it. She was E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y upset that I had stopped spend another night with her horse buddies. I spent an hour shooing and chasing her all around the yard and away from another hole in the fence I could not block off. At first she thought I was playing with her, then she slowly realized what I was really doing. She even tried to squeeze in a half-sized hole in a real desperate attempt to cross over. Fortunately, I was able to grab her and bring her in. Once in her coop, she still was very anxious and looking for ways to escape. Finally, dusk set in, which calmed her down.

Now what should I do?

I was thinking of leaving her in the coop all day tomorrow to (1) reduce her anxiety about the coop, and (2) get used to being locked up in the coop, something I never had done before (with near tragic results). Is one day enough?

Thanks for your replies and suggestions.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Sorry, I did not check back sooner. I bet you are trying to keep her in the coop for the day after all that chicken chasing you had to do yesterday. I know from experience that it is not easy to herd chickens. Give her lots of treats - I'm sure you are. It is hard to say exactly how long you would need to keep her in there. I suppose you could try letting her out tomorrow, and hopefully you won't have to round her up again. At least it sounds like she will keep hanging around because she knows where to get the good food!

 

[motorrad]

So after keeping her all cooped up for 45 hours, I let her out and she was none-too-pleased with me (she more or less ignored me). She did let me pet her, but did not want to eat anything I offerred. She did, however, go for the earthworms I dug up (what chicken would refuse?). I could tell she was not happy in my prescence. After a bit, she hopped over the fence and bunked up with the horses again for the night.

She was quiet and well behaved while caged up, but her stools were runny and a bit foul-smelling, so I think she was stressed out the entire time.

What should I do?

It's supposed to rain here the next couple of days (and my yard becomes a mud pit, if it already isn't). I can try to coax her back into the coop again (hopefully with not as much of a struggle), but I don't want to reinforce her lerriness being around me.

 

[Asweet23]

It sounds like you have done what you can and she has her mind made up about bunking down with the horses. Since she is the only chicken you have (right?) and she has no real reason (according to her) to stay in the coop at night she isn't going to. Maybe if you had a couple other chickens that roosted there she would join them. I know acquiring 2 grown hens isn't an easy task but craigslist has them occasionally. Not much else you can do at this point but hope that she stays safe.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

That's too bad that she didn't reestablish herself back in the coop. It's frustrating, I know, when the chickens' don't realize we are just trying to keep them safe. I guess now you need to bide your time to regain her trust. Hopefully she is hopping or flying to a roost off the floor when she bunks with the horses, which offers a bit more protection. Unfortunately, I am not sure getting a couple more hens would help get her back in the coop, because it would take some time being confined with other chickens for her to regard them as her flock, I think.

You could move the coop and build a larger chicken run on it and try to get her in there and keep her in there for longer, but she still might not want to stay there. I suppose it depends on how much effort you want to put into it, even though she may not show a lot of appreciation.

 

[motorrad]

An update--

After reading a few other posts on BYC, I decided to forcibly capture my bird each night and put her into coop. This was by no means a easy task. (I should have taken videos of the first few times and post them for hilarity.) I had to chase her around the yard, jump over fences, and trounce around in horse pens. Over the last 2.5 weeks, she escaped my clutches only once, only when it was pouring rain outside (she sat under a tree, laughing at me trying to coax her over the other side of the fence).

Then yesterday, she got into coop all by herself!

Now if I can only get her to start laying her eggs back in the coop again. When I was on the other side of the fence, I saw where she had been laying her eggs in a secret nestbox in one of the horse stalls. There were some 22 eggs (it was a scene out of Alien!). I surreptitiously took away all the eggs and put a few of them back over in the coop. There was a rake nearby and I used it to cover the nest. Hopefully, she will get the hint.

Actually, the last few days, I did see her come around in the mornings and walk into the laying area of the coop and check things out (she even made a divot in the straw), but no egg(s).

Thanks all for your help.