One of my favorite girls, Olive, disappeared last night. She is a smaller bird, who probably would not have put up a very good fight. So, every night, once it gets dark out, we lock all of our chickens in the secure part of their coop. So even if animal digs a hole under the run it still can't get to them. But, some mornings I like to sleep in, and on those mornings i usually don't let them out till 10 ish, so we don't lock them up the night before those lazy mornings, because they are used to getting let out at 7am every morning. They go crazy and make a huge mess if they are let down any later than 8:30. So last night, I decided to sleep in, so I went out to bring in the food and water, make sure the door to the coop was locked, cover any holes and say goodnight when it got dark out. But I did not lock them up with the board. This morning I came out at about 10:10 to give them fresh food and water, and move the coop to a new spot. Olive is a bit of an odd girl, so she prefers to stay upstairs unless she wants to eat or drink. So, it did not surprise me at all when she was not down in the run with the other girls. After finishing with my chores I opened up the door to the top part and olive was nowhere to be seen. I looked in disbelief, but she was not there. I shut the door, and ran around calling her name in our woods, but nothing. We are heartbroken and devastated that this happened. We have A LOT of foxes and raccoons in our neighborhood, but we are extra careful to make sure they are safe from the predators, but we lucked out. Never had any problems at all, and now this. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions to help us prevent this from happening again? I think a fox took her, but maybe a raccoon. Thanks
