Lost my splash polish

[taprock]

Well I feel horrible! Today I'm out in the cooP and notice Speckle my splash polish hen is missing. I then realize I don't remember when I've last seen her. What makes it worse is she was so sweet and usually eaiting at the door to say hi. Yesterday i didn't get an egg from her but that isn't unusual. The coop was open for a short time yesterday but even if I open the coop door they won't go in the snow so I'm sure she wouldn't have wandered off. We got two inches of new snow this morning so no tracks or feathers. 1- she could have wandered off or been scared or 2- eagle or coyote got her .... Either way it comes down to I didn't even notice till now and feel awful. Two of her eggs just hatched this past weekend. I hope one of her chicks looks like her and is as sweet.

 

[sawmane1]

I'm sorry... funny though my buff laced polish disapeard last week also.... hope you find her!

 

[obaan1]

The "not knowing" part is really a bummer, isn't it? I'm sorry she's gone awol.

 

[DelcoChix]

Really hoping you find her safe and sound...don't want to worry you but maybe you can benefit from our past experience which didn't have a happy ending....Our WC Black Polish hen also 'disappeared' early last spring. All the girls were in the backyard free ranging while we were home..when it was time to go back to the coop we couldn't find her anywhere, and it hadn't been all that long since I'd seen her.
We searched all over, yard, pasture, fencerow, barn...nothing. Felt really bad but figured a red tailed hawk must have picked her off as they are around (never been a problem before, but that's nature). She wasn't that big and no body found...looked again over the next few days-nothing. About three months later my dh was re-arranging hay in the barn to make room for more when he came across a dried up pile of black and white feathers, yeah, it was Phyllis. She somehow had burrowed deep into the hay that was stacked in the barn and couldn't get back out. We felt awful, and still do have that pang of regret..of 'if only we'd checked more thoroughly..' But, then again, I can't imagine even thinking,.." hmm..I'm going to move stacks of hay, 7 bales high...just in case the silly bird worked her way in...," but if I had, I would have. Why wouldn't we have heard her? I don't know. But I guess I thinking, if something spooked your girl maybe she found some place that she felt safer in, like a stack of hay? Since their vision isn't all that great it doesn't take much...
Best of luck and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

 

[taprock]

At this point I've given up on finding her alive, it's been about 17 the last two nights. I really think she wandered off or was scared off and hid. We still have snow on the ground and she wouldn't have gone willingly but once she was in the snow she was very hard to see. We looked every where that she could have hidden. My husband even took the snowmobile around the property looking for tracks - we had just gotten new snow, but nothing. Why did it have to be one of my best laying hens instead of one of the extra roosters? I think it's always the favorites that go first.

 

[DelcoChix]

I'm sorry to hear that--I really know what it's like when you really want to have them show up but you kind of 'know' that's not going to happen...but you keep hoping. I have another thread here on BYC (titled something like "Nuggets missing..") that is exactly the same story as you are going thru now, just a few weeks earlier. And I 100% agree...why does it have to be the special ones that go missing? It's hard enough to lose one and know she's gone, but it is that much harder when you are left wondering. Then I get over it (still remember them though) and keep getting tempted by chick season...sigh. I still hope she shows up but in the meantime, know you're not alone and it wasn't your fault...this stuff happens to a lot of us.