Chicken found after being missing for 3 weeks

[JeanLynott]

We let our chickens free range during the day and they go inside a coop in a barn at night. One of them went missing 3 weeks ago and we assumed that a predator got her. But tonight, our beagle found her behind a bale of hay, with a nest of frozen eggs, in a different barn. We live in Pennsylvania where it's 7 degrees right now. We brought her inside and she is alert and eating and drinking almost non-stop. She seems as if she's lost a lot of weight but doesn't appear to be injured and is moving around just fine.

I'm afraid that keeping her inside will be a shock to her system but it didn't seem right to put her back in the coop with the rest of the chickens on such a frigid night. I'm sure that the warmth is a shock to her, but she acts active and happy and seems to like the attention.

Did we do the right thing?

 

[CanadaEh]

if she spent 3 weeks outside sitting on a clutch of eggs why would you worry about putting here in the coop other than possible integration issues? But I am not sure if warmth of a house for just one night is going to be a problem either.

 

[JeanLynott]

Ahh, I see. I didn't think about her trying to hatch the eggs. I was more thinking about her being lost... We never had a broody hen before! Well, she appears to like the attention in our warm house. I'm thinking we'll take her back up to her coop tomorrow and hopefully her friends will welcome her back.