Last night I got home and my astrolorp was gone. No feathers, nothing. I walked the perimeter of my farm and NOTHING! I did it again this morning and no sign of struggle or being taken off at all. I don't know what happened to her. Could this have been a fox??? I would think there would've been feathers at least. She was a pretty big girl. She probably weighed 8-10 lbs.
Perhaps an owl? Im not sure of your set up or anything but an owl could have just swooped down and flown off, leaving very little evidence.
Drat - I hope she's okay! Did you get home in daylight? Are your birds locked up at night? Did she disappear from a run, from a coop, or from a free range area? Have you searched pretty far and wide? If something scared her or if something grabbed her but she ultimately got away she could be somewhat far afield and injured needing you to find her. This did happen to me once and I did find my roo after searching. He was injured but did get better. A neighbor saw a fox grab him but he got away. Is there anywhere she could be stuck - shut in another building or whatever? Hope you can find her. It's so agonizing not knowing. JJ
I found her!!! She's nesting!!!!! She was in an old dog house out by their pen. I put some straw in there with her and put a piece of plywood over the front so that nothing can get to her. My Mom let's her out in the mornings and I close her up at night. These are my first babies (hopefully) I need all the advise you have to give.
Quote:When you let her out did she come out and hang out with everyone else? or did she come out and eat a little, drink a little, poop a lot and get back on the nest? Broodies usually only get off the nest once a day to eat, drink, poo and then they get back on the nest. Sleeping on the nest is a good sign she's broody. What are you going to hatch?
Just make sure you secure the dog house really well. We had our Pekin ducks in one, with a thick door made of 2x4s on it, though the door was just held up against the house with another 2x4 wedged into the dirt. We thought it was secure enough, but... One morning we went out, the bottom of the door was pulled out all of like 3" and something had dragged off our drake we'd raised from a baby. I guess the predator was strong enough to pull the bottom of the door away just enough to grab the duck and drag it through. Our other duck was at the back of the doghouse, so was safe. I found the victim about 100 yards away, picked clean, only the wings, neck, and backbone left. (Sorry for the graphic description, some people want to know.) That should be lots of fun with a broody hen. We're hoping to have some of ours go broody sometime.
