Rivernottimana
Chirping
- Jul 31, 2024
- 11
- 117
- 76
CHICKENS RETURN HOME AFTER BEING GONE FOR OVER ONE MONTH....????
I am a newish, continuously learning chicken owner....Plymouth barred rocks since July. My chicken coop and run has evolved 4 times since becoming a chicken owner and as soon as the weather permits and I can lay a foundation, will have a portable building brought in with an automatic door (wish I had known that from the beginning). I think my chickens are doing well.....since Christmas (best gift ever!), I have been collecting one to four eggs daily and was not expecting even one until spring! I don't give them any extra light, just get up at dawn and let them out and lock them up at dusk. I live rural, 3 acres mostly wooded and my chickens were free ranging some of the time before the days started getting shorter and colder. Now, unless I am outside, they are mostly contained in their run due to the weather and predators. We have coyotes, foxes, hawks, bald eagles, possums and raccoons in and around the woods. Probably mink, too as their is a river nearby but haven't seen one of those yet!
I started in July with 7 chickens. Then one evening in early December, when they were still ranging, only 5 chickens came home. The next day, I walked for hours in expanding circles extending at least a mile from my house......no evidence of death. I thought perhaps a coyote or fox braved the cleared area of my backyard during the late afternoon, making off with a chicken, and that was that.
Today, I found both of my chickens in the woods about 1/4 mile from their coop! They appear to be healthy although thinner than my other chickens and their beaks and legs look much more yellow than the other girls. Also, their combs are significantly smaller although not frostbit or injured. They drank water excessively upon return and fed for a long time, once I shuffled the other chickens out of the coop and run.
One of the missing chickens was the dominant chicken of the flock before disappearing. For several days after the disappearance of the two, the other girls seems confused but soon after a new pecking order was established. Today, the entire flock of 5 attacked the two MIA chickens and I had to separate them immediately before they were injured. I built an emergency chicken coop in my garage and brought in one of the less dominant chickens to begin re-introduction (watched them for about an hour and appears to be going well).
Anyway, I just want to known if anybody has ever heard of anything like this before. I feel like an idiotic, negligent fool for posting this but blessed at the same time that the Magnificent Seven is back together. I just can't believe those two young birds survived, foraging in the winter and finding food, escaping all the predators we have around and living outdoors in single digit temperature with no shelter. I think it's a miracle.
The picture is the emergency coop. The two girls on the right are the MIAs, now returned.
I am a newish, continuously learning chicken owner....Plymouth barred rocks since July. My chicken coop and run has evolved 4 times since becoming a chicken owner and as soon as the weather permits and I can lay a foundation, will have a portable building brought in with an automatic door (wish I had known that from the beginning). I think my chickens are doing well.....since Christmas (best gift ever!), I have been collecting one to four eggs daily and was not expecting even one until spring! I don't give them any extra light, just get up at dawn and let them out and lock them up at dusk. I live rural, 3 acres mostly wooded and my chickens were free ranging some of the time before the days started getting shorter and colder. Now, unless I am outside, they are mostly contained in their run due to the weather and predators. We have coyotes, foxes, hawks, bald eagles, possums and raccoons in and around the woods. Probably mink, too as their is a river nearby but haven't seen one of those yet!
I started in July with 7 chickens. Then one evening in early December, when they were still ranging, only 5 chickens came home. The next day, I walked for hours in expanding circles extending at least a mile from my house......no evidence of death. I thought perhaps a coyote or fox braved the cleared area of my backyard during the late afternoon, making off with a chicken, and that was that.
Today, I found both of my chickens in the woods about 1/4 mile from their coop! They appear to be healthy although thinner than my other chickens and their beaks and legs look much more yellow than the other girls. Also, their combs are significantly smaller although not frostbit or injured. They drank water excessively upon return and fed for a long time, once I shuffled the other chickens out of the coop and run.
One of the missing chickens was the dominant chicken of the flock before disappearing. For several days after the disappearance of the two, the other girls seems confused but soon after a new pecking order was established. Today, the entire flock of 5 attacked the two MIA chickens and I had to separate them immediately before they were injured. I built an emergency chicken coop in my garage and brought in one of the less dominant chickens to begin re-introduction (watched them for about an hour and appears to be going well).
Anyway, I just want to known if anybody has ever heard of anything like this before. I feel like an idiotic, negligent fool for posting this but blessed at the same time that the Magnificent Seven is back together. I just can't believe those two young birds survived, foraging in the winter and finding food, escaping all the predators we have around and living outdoors in single digit temperature with no shelter. I think it's a miracle.
The picture is the emergency coop. The two girls on the right are the MIAs, now returned.
