Learn from my mistake! Cautionary tale

[JCaseyHammond]

Today I had a little adventure with my flock that I'm sure others can learn from.
I went out to feed my flock this afternoon and allowed them to go out of the run door because usually when I refill the feeder, they follow me to the feed and back, no trouble, and are no hassle to get back in. But today, they didn't follow me, didn't want treats, didn't respond to 'who wants bugs!!' (which is what they've been trained to mean 'come').....just a general hassle to get inside. I opened the door of the coop with the hopes of herding them around to hop in that way (has worked before). They didn't end up using that door, and when I finally got them in the run, I was annoyed and just went back inside, WITHOUT remembering to close the door of the coop. Fast forward to tonight, I go down to lock up and Ruth is not there. Not in the nesting boxes (where she's been sleeping lately) not in the corners, not on the roost, not under the coop, not on the perch in the run.....fantic looking around in the whole backyard ensues (all while I'm in tears (parents are considerably calmer)). We looked over every inch of the backyard and went back inside because we thought that there was nothing more that we could do... at this point I'm assuming the worst (that a hawk got her earlier, she got hit by a car, etc) and my parents convinced me to go out and try again. Luckily, this story has a happy ending.....we went back out with our flashlights and saw that she was on the roof of the run!!!! (coop is way downhill from the porch so we had full view of the roof, but couldn't see the spot she was at if we weren't looking at it from the ground) we walked right past her earlier. We did a quick chicken-napping and all was well. Two lessons can be learned here:
1. ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK YOUR DOORS. ALWAYS. No matter how annoyed you are at your chickens. This could have ended MUCH worse than it did (all four chickens finding a neighbor's dog, a hawk.......) and I will never forget to check the doors ever again.

2. Don't give up on something until you KNOW that it's beyond your control. Ruth was fine, but if we hadn't gone out a second time, she probably wouldn't have been fine by the time the night was over. If I had stayed inside crying, we wouldn't have the happy ending that we do now. Until you've tried all of your options or found out that something ended badly (in this case, finding a chicken body) don't give up.

This is true. I raise the trap door before collecting eggs. And do head counts until I get the correct number.

And if any animal is missing, search in a spiral from the place he or she was last seen. Looking into every space no matter how small. Usually find the animal not very far away. Don’t get sad, just go look! Happy endings

 

[MarshyRooster]

It's great that Ruth is okay! Chickens are so mischevious- and yet, completely wonderful.

 

[black_cat]

It's great that Ruth is okay! Chickens are so mischevious- and yet, completely wonderful.

Definitely! She's been sleeping in the nesting boxes lately, and I always have to nudge her out so she'll go on the roost, and I can just picture her, up on the roof, going ''Is this what you wanted? I am up high! Not in box!" While we're panicking

 

[MarshyRooster]

I can just picture Dawnwing doing that! She's not exactly well-behaved . No one can help but love even the worst-behaved chickens.