I need help big time. On Facebook, a person in my town (Meaford, Ontario, Canada) posted that there was a chicken in their yard (and area around their yard) which was lost from the Fall Fair. Our fair is Labour Day weekend - so she has been out their fending for herself since Sept 3rd. She even had chicks at one point.
I tried to help lure her with food, etc. but to no avail. She is pretty "wild" and not interested in being caught. The property owners where she hangs out have put out bird seed for her which she eats, but no one has really gotten near her this whole time. They have contacted the Agricultural Society which host the fair and someone had noted they lost a chicken, but no one has come out to claim her - there was a Poultry show at the Fair this year so the owner may have traveled from pretty far away to show her.
She is pretty thin right now and flies REALLY well. When we got close (about 4ft away) she was in a branch and flew at least 300ft at about 20ft high in the air!
I need help figuring out how to catch her so we can re-home her. At first I had thought of only trying to have two people to do this, so we didn't scare her, but now I see where she is hiding out is too vast (a ravine) with too many places she can go but we can't. Plus, since she was from the Fair, I assumed she was more tame and well handled. She is obviously a fancy show bird (looks like a blue Americauna - but I am no expert) who would have been well kept one would think.
Now I am thinking a crew to drive to the direction we want might work. Or sneaking up with something to throw over her????
Has anyone had luck with:
I want to get her asap because she probably won't last much longer in our climate. It has been pretty mild with not a lot of snow, but generally, we have about 3ft of snow by now. Bird seed isn't a great diet and foraging will soon be nearly NIL. There are lots of foxes, skunks, raccoons, minks and birds of prey in our area.
I tried to help lure her with food, etc. but to no avail. She is pretty "wild" and not interested in being caught. The property owners where she hangs out have put out bird seed for her which she eats, but no one has really gotten near her this whole time. They have contacted the Agricultural Society which host the fair and someone had noted they lost a chicken, but no one has come out to claim her - there was a Poultry show at the Fair this year so the owner may have traveled from pretty far away to show her.
She is pretty thin right now and flies REALLY well. When we got close (about 4ft away) she was in a branch and flew at least 300ft at about 20ft high in the air!
I need help figuring out how to catch her so we can re-home her. At first I had thought of only trying to have two people to do this, so we didn't scare her, but now I see where she is hiding out is too vast (a ravine) with too many places she can go but we can't. Plus, since she was from the Fair, I assumed she was more tame and well handled. She is obviously a fancy show bird (looks like a blue Americauna - but I am no expert) who would have been well kept one would think.
Now I am thinking a crew to drive to the direction we want might work. Or sneaking up with something to throw over her????
Has anyone had luck with:
- catching a wiley chicken with a live trap and bait (like a raccoon trap) - we were thinking this might work but it was tried already with a home-made trap. She never went near the trap even though food was in it.
- using a net/netting to catch a hen (like bird netting, a blanket thrown over or a fishing net)
- Some other ingenious plan we haven't been able to hatch!
I want to get her asap because she probably won't last much longer in our climate. It has been pretty mild with not a lot of snow, but generally, we have about 3ft of snow by now. Bird seed isn't a great diet and foraging will soon be nearly NIL. There are lots of foxes, skunks, raccoons, minks and birds of prey in our area.
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The mad who originally posted about this chicken told me it looked like crows picked off the chicks. 
