Hen came back after missing for 5 days!

[Danny188]

WARNING- This is a long post, I don't need help just sharing a story. Saturday I went out later than I usually do to count chickens and to close the coop door. I counted and I was one short, I was missing one of the RIR×Buff Orpinton crosses. I was kicking myself for counting them that late becuse it was already dark. This was one that likes to fly over the fence to wander around the yard. My nehbors free range chickens where all killed by a fox and I had a trail cam picture of it taking a wild turkey carcass from one I had shot during turkey season. I set the camera up after it was drug 50 yards into the woods the first night it was out. Then I piled acouple of rocks onto what was left and set up a yrail cam and got pictures of it the next night. I tried trapping it with a live trap but that dident result in anything but possums. Anyway so I looked for about an hour and a half with no luck. In the morning I looked some more with nothing to be found. I figured it had wandered into the wooded ditch behind our backyard and the fox had gotten it. I made shure the other two wanderers stayed in the fence and set a trap and a trail camera on it the next night after it had been missing. Around midnight I had a coon go compleatly into the trap but not set it off then an hour later guess what..... another possum. I caught him and let him go. So after that I kept the trap closed becuse I didn't want to catch more possums and I removed the trail camera. Fast forward to yesterday im realy confused why nothing else has died. Then today mid day I saw all 4 of my RIR×buff orpinton crosses all at once. 2 outside the fence two inside. It had went through my mind that she could be sitting on eggs but surviving 5 full nights I would have thought somthing would have found her. The worst part is around day 3 of her being missing I had forgotten to collect eggs the day before so the 2 other broodys I had been sitting on them. So I threw them into one of teh tangled up raspberry bushes by the barn becuse I didn't want to sell/eat partially developed eggs. Anyway the Bush was super thick with raspberry thorns and little saplings so I was thing if a passion wants them he is gona have to work for it. When I saw that hen she had some egg on her and a blue shell stuck to her feathers. She was in that bush. For 2 nights the egg were cracked open ready for a possum or raccoon to smell. At this point I New exactly where the nest was and that she was sitting on eggs. I put on some gloves and in teh center of the bush tucked up against the barn was a nest with 14 eggs in it. I tested one and it wasn't fertile, none of them were. I do have a rooster but this must not have been a favorite becuse my other eggs are mostly fertile. I destroyed the nest and hopefully now she decides to stay in the coop. 14 eggs that means she has been laying them there for a while. The funny thing is this bush is like 10 yards from the door I walk into the barn every night. I did look into it and rattle some corn but I didn't see anything so I didn't ever compleatly check. She must have senced the eggs wernt fertile or somthing and given up on them. 5 nights she survived the camera I had set was only 60-80 yards away from this bush.

 

[Danny188]

You can see the crater i made in it when I went looking for the nest.

 

[Danny188]

Well mabey she just went to get some food and water. She was back in the bush when I took those pictures

 

[agold23]

WARNING- This is a long post, I don't need help just sharing a story. Saturday I went out later than I usually do to count chickens and to close the coop door. I counted and I was one short, I was missing one of the RIR×Buff Orpinton crosses. I was kicking myself for counting them that late becuse it was already dark. This was one that likes to fly over the fence to wander around the yard. My nehbors free range chickens where all killed by a fox and I had a trail cam picture of it taking a wild turkey carcass from one I had shot during turkey season. I set the camera up after it was drug 50 yards into the woods the first night it was out. Then I piled acouple of rocks onto what was left and set up a yrail cam and got pictures of it the next night. I tried trapping it with a live trap but that dident result in anything but possums. Anyway so I looked for about an hour and a half with no luck. In the morning I looked some more with nothing to be found. I figured it had wandered into the wooded ditch behind our backyard and the fox had gotten it. I made shure the other two wanderers stayed in the fence and set a trap and a trail camera on it the next night after it had been missing. Around midnight I had a coon go compleatly into the trap but not set it off then an hour later guess what..... another possum. I caught him and let him go. So after that I kept the trap closed becuse I didn't want to catch more possums and I removed the trail camera. Fast forward to yesterday im realy confused why nothing else has died. Then today mid day I saw all 4 of my RIR×buff orpinton crosses all at once. 2 outside the fence two inside. It had went through my mind that she could be sitting on eggs but surviving 5 full nights I would have thought somthing would have found her. The worst part is around day 3 of her being missing I had forgotten to collect eggs the day before so the 2 other broodys I had been sitting on them. So I threw them into one of teh tangled up raspberry bushes by the barn becuse I didn't want to sell/eat partially developed eggs. Anyway the Bush was super thick with raspberry thorns and little saplings so I was thing if a passion wants them he is gona have to work for it. When I saw that hen she had some egg on her and a blue shell stuck to her feathers. She was in that bush. For 2 nights the egg were cracked open ready for a possum or raccoon to smell. At this point I New exactly where the nest was and that she was sitting on eggs. I put on some gloves and in teh center of the bush tucked up against the barn was a nest with 14 eggs in it. I tested one and it wasn't fertile, none of them were. I do have a rooster but this must not have been a favorite becuse my other eggs are mostly fertile. I destroyed the nest and hopefully now she decides to stay in the coop. 14 eggs that means she has been laying them there for a while. The funny thing is this bush is like 10 yards from the door I walk into the barn every night. I did look into it and rattle some corn but I didn't see anything so I didn't ever compleatly check. She must have senced the eggs wernt fertile or somthing and given up on them. 5 nights she survived the camera I had set was only 60-80 yards away from this bush.

My grandma went through a similar situation with her rhode island hen. She went missing one day in august and didn’t come back. They assumed a fox took her and that was that. About 3 weeks later she comes back with 5 little chicks trailing behind her! A little while later my grandma was out gardening and she found the hens nest with 1 egg unhatched left. The garden is only about 40/50 feet from the coop. Now here we were all worried about this hen and if she was even alive but she was just doing what her instincts told her! She got 2 roosters and 3 hens from that batch, both the roosters were given away, one hen was snatched by a fox and the other two died. This was years ago and my grandma no longer has chickens but your story reminded me of mine!

 

[Danny188]

Guess who decided to lay another cluch of eggs outside of the chicken pen. I should clip her wings but I don't want to limit her if something decides to kill chickens. She decided to spend tonight outside again, but she laid them in a spot that they have laid eggs in the past so I found her after 5 minutes of looking. I'm going to clip her wings tomorrow, and hopefully she won't be ablr to jump out of the pen. This time around the eggs were fertile but not developed yet.

 

[ChickenWhisperer101]

I’m glad she was ok!

 

[chckndaddy]

wow, neat stories! I have a similar one to share. we had a hen that was accidentally shot with a bow when someone was practicing archery one day, she fully recovered in a few days though. it just made her leg bent in at an angle and she kinda walked like she had a "peg leg" so that's what we called her. she quickly became the family favorite and stayed so for a couple years. one day she just disappeared and after hours of searching we came to the conclusion that a predator got her. But 2 weeks later exactly we found her in our compost pile just living the dream. We still have no idea where she was that whole 2 weeks and how she got into the compost as it has a fence around it. it's pretty strange considering all the predators we have around here and that we live in the woods.