chickenherder26
Chirping
Today, one of our 4 7-week old chicks disappeared. We let our adult chickens out to free range in the afternoon, and the chicks are allowed to be free in our run. All four chicks were fine, running around like normal, and I didn't check on them for 1-2 hours. After dinner, my family went out and discovered that our baby Easter Egger was gone. We have two runs, one connecting to another which connects to the coop which has a door that leads outside. We leave this door and the 2nd run open so the adult chickens can come get food and water. We also put up a barricade between the 1st and 2nd run so the chicks are separated from the adult hens. Everything is covered either by a roof, or by string criss-crossed over top. There was a small gap in the barricade which the chick may have been able to get through and out to the open. We assumed this happened and spent a large time searching for her. We have a large, fairly open yard in the country with a few trees, so we should have been able to see her if she was just foraging. We also looked under bushes in the yard and flower yards and didn't find her. We have found no evidence of a predator attack-no feathers/blood-although I did see a feral cat somewhat nearby but it didn't appear to be eating anything. I was wondering if it was possible our chick is still alive in a tree somewhere or if she got carried off by some animal. (It's now night) Should I continue to search or should I assume she is dead?If I should continue to look where should I be searching?
I'm really sad, although this isn't the first time we've lost birds (illness), we haven't lost any to predators yet which is what I'm assuming.
I'm really sad, although this isn't the first time we've lost birds (illness), we haven't lost any to predators yet which is what I'm assuming.
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