So, a bit of a sad conclusion to this saga.
I was looking for a specific message in my "message request" area in Facebook messenger, when I discovered multiple messages, unnoticed by me, dating from middle of May on.
Long story short, the hens belonged to an elderly woman in town. Around a year ago I took in a rooster that had started to attack her, we had some back and forth where she asked if anything happened to her if I wanted her hens? I said sure, and thought no more of it.
Well, she passed away early May. Her husband, who had a stroke several years ago, is apparently being moved to an out of state assisted living/nursing home, where their daughter lives with her family.
It was the daughter that messaged me, basically she knew I had agreed to take the birds, but apparently not WHEN I agreed to take the birds. According to the messages, she stopped by the house during daylight hours and couldn't find anyone a couple of times, and then with clock ticking and needing to move her disabled dad while grieving her mom, just left them in the coop and hoped for the best.
And, all is well. The chickens are a beautiful addition to the flock and are all doing well. So, not a very exciting update, but at least 1 mystery is solved.