For those who lock up their birds EVERY NIGHT:

[Catz1611]

head count every night..last night was missing three.. (got that bad feeling in my stomach) thankfully found the three roosting on the tractor under the lean to.

 

[chicknerd]

Quote:
I have a WC black Polish pullet who must lose track of time. I often find her roosting at various places in the run at night. I think she simply takes a nap and suddenly its dark and she decides its safer to stay there. I always put her in the coop. She is not dumb. She is always the first at the door when I come for treats and I did trim her puff so she can see. I think she simply forgets or falls asleep.

I dont bother to head count - I look for her in the coop first.

 

[woodmort]

I don't normally do a head count during this time of year. When they are free ranging all over the place during the summer I sometimes will. I have one or two which will roost in my wood pile under the deck that have to be captured and carried to the coop. I'm sure if one or two of the BS were missing I'd never know but the oddball ones like the WR and SS are always accounted for.

 

[Beekissed]

I have a Partridge Rock pullet that insists on roosting in the dog shed above the dog houses. Safest place in the world from a chicken's viewpoint! She is the only chicken I've ever had that insists on roosting outside the coop~except for one unfortunate BR pullet. I never close my pop door, so they are free to come and go at will and roost wherever they like.

Sometimes they make bad choices. I had a Barred Rock pullet that kept roosting on the hay in the sheep shed....a place my dog cannot reach nor protect. After a few nights of that I found her lying in the field on the opposite side of the shed and she had no head. Survival of the smartest, I guess.

 

[rancher hicks]

Now I'm only going with the OP's question and yes this has happened. I expected a hen to go in with the rest and she didn't. I've had them return or found them huddled near the coop. DD once left one in the run and it was very cold but she was ok. Thank the Lord.

I too do a head count. Which is why I keep a certain number of each breed, 2bo's 3 cm's etc. etc. Makes it easy to keep track. I do lock them up at night and they are in the run all day but we have snow so they don't go into the yard.

In the summer their run is open and they have access to the yard or run or coop at their choosing.

 

[forrestacres]

Head count done every night, no matter what.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It seems that it's always the SAME ones who insist on roosting somewhere other than in their pens at sundown. Most of the chickens will go into their own coops on their own, then we have to pick several off the branches of a nearby tree where they insist on settling. You'd think that after weeks/months of this they'd get it through their little bird brains that they should go to roost in the same place they wake up each morning.

For years there was a flock of bantams who would roost high in the branches of a tall ficus tree that hangs over the corner pen. At dusk they'd gather on the top of the 5' fence around it, or on top of the dog house inside it, and from there flap up into the branches of the tree. But this summer there was a bobcat and a few big feral cats that were preying on these birds, waiting to catch them in that hour before sunset as they gathered to fly up into the tree. I lost a large portion of this bantam flock before I figured out what was happening. (There was no way to do an accurate head count of these birds once they were up in the tree) I have since caught the remaining bantams & now have them in a covered pen.

The cats were also preying on my flock of ducks, who used to be allowed to stay out in the yard until after dark. Now we make sure that someone is home during the hour before dark to put everybird away and take a head count. But the other morning I realized that my son had not made an accurate count of the Khaki Campbell ducks the night before. There was a duck inside one of the live traps I now keep set around the yard. She must have been there since some time the day before, and had even laid an egg inside the trap!

 

[colowyo0809]

We lock our birds up every night, and we count them. However, even with counting we thought we had lost one to foxes because we were missing one and simply could not find it. This was one of our three MF banties. However, two days later he is just in with the flock, no idea where he was at, or where he came from. Looked just as healthy as when he disappeared

Since both my partner and I work full time, and we are only home combined four days a week to shut them up right now with daylight shorter, we have his father/brother shut the birds up most evenings. We got really lucky one night, because they apparantly didn't count and mamma MF and her babies was left out of the coop half the night. I discovered them at 2am when I took the dogs out

So I picked up her and her two babies and placed them inside and relocked the coop.

Even the most careful can lose from time to time, and sometimes its not a loss, just a mystery

 

[NonnasBabies]

I do a head count every night I'm home. If I'm working nights my son or in laws closes them up. I've only had a problem once where one got into the garden and couldn't figure out how to get back in. She roosted on one of my trellises. Of course it was one of the coldest night and she had frozen feathers but she was fine!!

 

[ZooMummzy]

I don't do a head count but I scour the run every single night with a flashlight. I look in every corner, every place they could roost or hide, even under my ramps. Two times I've found an EE roosting on the rungs of these old chairs I have for them to sit on and I've found my Seramas roosting on beams of their run patio. My husband thought I was crazy for doing this until he ran across one of my little OEGBs dazed and confused in the run while I was on vacation. She is gray so he thought she was a rock. Turned out she had an eye infection and was blind so couldn't figure out where to go or what to do. Now he never questions me when I say "double check the run before you lock up". He even asks "did you look over there". I don't want to be sorry in the morning, ever.