Chicken flew the coop - how do you get them back?

[RachelJoy]

My hens have been roosting in a tree for months now - we just can't get them to go in the coop anymore. They live in a fenced in yard, not very secure.

This morning we found one hen (out of just three) outside of the fenced area waiting to be let back in, and one hen was missing altogether. At about 10:00 AM one of my neighbors stopped by my office to say there was a white hen wandering along the road a block up from my house. I went with her and we tried our very best to herd her towards my house using brooms sticks, and to lure her there with food, but she wanted nothing to do with it (whoever coined the phrase "herding cats" must have never even tried to herd a hen). I even got her to eat some food out of a bowl and tried to throw my jacket over her, but she was too fast. After half an hour I gave up and went back to work.

3 hours later another neighbor just called me to say she's in the woods behind his house (this means she's going farther away from my house). I'm concerned that she will never find her way home - clearly she doesn't know where she is - and when we try to push her in the right direction she goes all crazy and who knows where she'll end up.

So, any suggestions? I'd really appreciate some help. My dear hen doesn't lay anymore, but we're still rather attached to her.

Thought I'd file this under "emergencies" since I didn't know where else to put it.

Thanks,

Rachel

 

[BethanyS]

Is there anyway you could get 1 of the other chickens in an animal carrier. maybe if you took 1 of her buddies down there she would follow you home

 

[CinnamonQueen]

Set up a harmless trap? You better try to secure those chickies in! Good luck!

 

[BethanyS]

our girls were trying to roost in the trees over the summer. I would have to watch them closely at the end of the day when I began to roost in the trees I shooed them out with the water hose lol rpoor girls . took about s week to break them. i felt a little bad about it but it really just took spraying.g the limbs behind them and their tails to get them moving . You could clip their wings and remove the lower tree branches or could hang trash bags on the lower limbs to detour them. our chickens are afraid of grocery bags and trash bags