I have two 14 week old chickens - an RIR, Buffy, and an EE, hoot - and a 5 week old duck. I live in a residential area in the middle of a city. My girls free range around my yard/carport and are not fenced in. They could run across the street if they wanted, but have never gone further than my neighbors yard. The two chickens usually stay together. I usually go out to feed them about 4 times a day (the duck is an eating machine and so we have to feed small amounts at a time), and check on them periodically. They've always came when I called them. Today was the first day it "rained" since we moved them outside. We had about 5, 45 second sessions of sprinkles, but they have an entire carport for shelter and seemed to be doing fine. I have my front door open so I can see if they were to leave and hear them. Anyway, I went out to feed them around 3, it had been probably 3 hours since I had last been out, and Buffy is nowhere to be found. Hoot and the duck seem to be fine. I searched my street and went quite a ways and don't see or hear her anywhere. We have a dog in the yard and he didn't make a peep, nor did the girls who usually throw a fit if anyone or a stray walks up (and I also would've seen something like that - they'd have to pass the front door to get to my yard). I did find probably 6 feathers in one area and a little bit of red/brown fluff. I'm thinking maybe a bird got her? I'm pretty darn sure she didn't just run away, especially without her best friend, Hoot.
Anyone else have a similar experience?
Anyone else have a similar experience?