28 days later and they disappeared

Tangeygirl

Songster
9 Years
Aug 27, 2010
109
0
101
Quiet Corner, Connecticut
I've had my girls for 28 days. Today I let them out as usual to roam. I last saw them at 5 o'clock hanging around the coop that had fresh hay and shavings waiting for them. When I went to bring them their nightly snack and lock them in at 6:45 (they're usually back by 6:30) they weren't there.
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They never came home. They've never wandered further than the edge of my neighbors yard.

I'm so sad that they're gone for good. I'm hoping they just found a place to roost high enough where critters can't get to them and that they'll start to miss their treats and come back home tomorrow. Fingers and toes crossed. These are my first set of girls and I'm super attached to them.

Jaime
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Is this their first major coop bedding change? Chickens HATE change and may have been afraid to go inside the coop if they haven't seen litter changed in the past. Have you shined lights up into the trees or around your house to see if they tried to hide or go to their "old home"/where ever you brooded them?
 
Two of them are a year old and then we have a 3 month old and a 4 month old. We've had them for a month and just added fresh shavings and hay to the actual "coop" not the the enclosed area (run) around it. They came back after I had added shavings and hay and then they disappeared. We wandered around the neighborhood looking for them and checked their usual hiding spots in the wooded area around our house. Nada. They've been free ranging around our yard from the hours of 9-6 for 3 weeks. They know where their home is. They have always returned. I hope I didn't scare them away by giving them fresh stuff in their coop. If I had known they wanted their stinky shavings and hay I would have left them in the coop (I just added the "old" to the covered area below their coop)
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What are the chances they come back tomorrow? Anyone else have chickens take a lil vacation and come back? We're not the only family in the neigborhood to have chickens...hoping they didn't find a better coop to stay at!

Jaime
 
Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm new to chickens so I have no experience with wayward ones but I sure hope they come home!
 
I'm hopeful that they'll return. I just have a feeling nothing happened to all of them at the same time. That would have to be a pretty speedy predator to get a hold of all of them at once in an open area with plenty of places to run and hide. Does your coop have electricity? If so, try leaving a light on for them tonight. It can't hurt.
Crossing fingers for you. Keep us posted.
 
OMG! I hope they come back to you. How far away is the next house that has chickens? It is possible they could have "cooped up" in someone elses place. Hopefully they are just having a nice sleepover with friends. Keep us posted!
 
Well I heard some hens getting quite noisy this morning at 6:45 and thought...YAY! They're home. Nope, wasn't them. Must have been the neighbors girls.
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The area under the coop is quite visible. If you go to my page you can see the set up. It's a dog house high off the ground, that's where I put the older shavings and hay. No place for them to hide under there. I left the coop/run door open and left a flood light on that faces towards their lil place.

I'm going to take my four kiddos and go roam the neighborhood today. We live in a quiet neighborhood...but the houses are fairly close. The neighbor with chickens is across the street and two houses down. And I think our neighbor directly across the street has some. And then about 1/8th of a mile away there's another family with chickens on a different street. I find it hard to believe they'd roam that far! We live on .25 acres...the furtherst I've seen them roam is across the neighbor next doors whole yard which is probably another .25 acres.

I didn't sleep well, I guess this is as close as I can get to how my mother felt when I'd stay out late and got home in the wee hours of the morning. Except, I actually came home! :p

Thanks everyone for the comments and support. I'll keep you all posted.

Jaime
 
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