11 chickens missing, 2 dead

[Ole rooster]

If three chickens came back chances are good others will too. Some may take days to calm down. I hope so. But you are right in your observation that the "mean" people are concerned for the chickens also. This is a site about the care and laying habits of chickens. My concern is with the chickens., not making folks feel good. If all you hear is the "so sorry, don't blame yourself" stuff, you will not learn a thing. You did wrong, you know you did so you learned a valuable lesson. But at the cost of some of your hens lives. That matters, but you learned. Now you can take what chickens you have left and go froward. But I would ask the husband to please lock the chickens up if by chance you are late coming home. You may not be able to get to a phone of something else may stop you. So at a certain time if you aren't home yet he can lock um in. Even now he should understand it's just not good for the chickens to be left unattended after dark. Those night killers are out there lurking just waiting on a mistake.

I do feel for you and I know you hurt. It's just a terrible way to have to learn.

You can recover from hurt feeling and the sadness, but they can't. They suffer the ultimate.

I have a hard time knowing some people take the attitude it's just chickens, or just a dog, or just a horse or a cow or whatever. They all matter if they belong to you.

Best of luck on finding the rest.

 

[speedy2020]

It's time to get a live animal trap.

 

[ShooterG22]

I had a friend's dog get of of my yard and go after my hens while I was gone. Came home to find the rooster cornered under a bush with the dog nipping feathers from him. The rest of the area looked like all 4 hens had been plucked clean but I couldn't find any body parts. I finally found one injured hen hiding under my house (double wide crawl space). It took 4 hours forthe others to wander back but I kept teasing the rooster so he'd crow. They were all fine and evidently made it over the fence into the neighbors yard unscathed. The one under the house wouldn't come out and I finally had to belly crawl under there and get her. Pretty resilient birds. Glad some have come home and my guess is that you'll see more in the next day or so. Predators can't remove that many bodies too quickly and dogs won't run off with one then come back and get another and another.

 

[Twiggers96]

I have 20+ incredibly noisy chicks in two stalls in a barn.
Two nights ago a fox entered a stall and took a chick. (I got there 15 minutes too late that night).
Yesterday morning when I entered the barn to tend to the flock NOT A PEEP COULD BE HEARD.
Nadda. I thougt for sure the fox returned and finished them ALL off.
Nope - they were hiding!!! I never knew 20 chicks & three hens could be so quiet!!

I hope your others return home.

 

[SirRobertSmith]

I know how easy it is to forget to lock them up before dark. I forgot a few times so I made myself a reminder app. I published it for free, search the Android Market for "Sunset Reminder". I first published it about 6 months ago and it has proven to be very reliable. If it saves a few chickens from fox attack then I'm happy.