Feral chicken?

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I have a hen that doesn't like the flock any more. Or at least that's one possibility.

I may have a hen who came from some where else and is thinking about joining my flock.

I have a part time hen??

So we had a few numbers changes at the mid summer point, added some babies lost two to predation, fostered three. Somewhere in there DH and I lost exact count of how many we had. 23 or maybe 24.

See I thought we lost one one night. I thought we had 24 but I only counted 23. But they were in three separate coops at that point so I figured I missed one....

The next night there were 24. Then 23 and in the morning there was a hen meandering around the yard. We let them free range in the evening I guess she didn't come home but she survived the night.

Now I open the coop in the AM and one hen gets out and hops the fence. Later in the day when everyone else gets out she hangs with them and most nights she comes home, some nights she doesn't. In the morning she's usually around. One night I didn't see her when I got up in the morning I found she'd spent the night in the garage.

Feral? An outcast? So far we've taken a live and let live approach to her. Should I??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have had some do that but my biggest fear is predators so I try to imprint them on the coop for sleeping as quickly as possible.
Often they come back but when they don't I know a predator stumbled on them in the night when they're defenseless sitting ducks.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Well that's the question, either she is one of my flock in which case she was raised in this coop or she's feral from somewhere else. The fosters - the ones most likely to struggle with where do I live issues are all a different breed. very easy to tell.

We have a neighbor about a mile off who has some of the same as this breed and I actually wondered if she might not be one of theirs who went a wandering!

She spent the night out again last night but was sitting on the yard fence again this morning...