Our chicks are 12 weeks old and we have a nightly ritual. My boys go out around 7:30 pm and move their food and water inside the coop, and they plug in the heat lamp. Then DH or I go out about 8:30 pm to close the coop up for the night and do a head count.
Anyway, as I was counting chicks last night, I came up two short. I kept counting....still two short. As the panic was threatening to take over, I looked all over the coop. Under the nest boxes, in the nest boxes, underneath the other chickens. Nothing. So I get a flashlight and go and look in the run. Nothing.
As I stood there trying to figure out where they could be, I finally calmed down enough to figure out just which two chickens were missing. One RIR we call Princess Freak-out, and our one and only bantam hen Spud. Now, Spud will talk back to you if you talk to her, so I started calling her. I could hear her peeping, but I couldn't find her. I thought she fell into the poop pit and was just about to start taking chickens off the roost to move the boards when a bit of movement near the ceiling caught my eye. There they were, roosting on the 2 by 4 that runs about 5 inches from the coop ceiling, the only hole we have in the coop setup!
They got to spend their first night in the dark until I can get that hole patched up today with some screen.
I was just soooooo relieved to find them!!!!!!
Anyway, as I was counting chicks last night, I came up two short. I kept counting....still two short. As the panic was threatening to take over, I looked all over the coop. Under the nest boxes, in the nest boxes, underneath the other chickens. Nothing. So I get a flashlight and go and look in the run. Nothing.


As I stood there trying to figure out where they could be, I finally calmed down enough to figure out just which two chickens were missing. One RIR we call Princess Freak-out, and our one and only bantam hen Spud. Now, Spud will talk back to you if you talk to her, so I started calling her. I could hear her peeping, but I couldn't find her. I thought she fell into the poop pit and was just about to start taking chickens off the roost to move the boards when a bit of movement near the ceiling caught my eye. There they were, roosting on the 2 by 4 that runs about 5 inches from the coop ceiling, the only hole we have in the coop setup!

They got to spend their first night in the dark until I can get that hole patched up today with some screen.
I was just soooooo relieved to find them!!!!!!