Missing chicken

[Charlieissocoollike]

I live in central long island. Suburban. Like the only foresty area is a persevere far away from my house or three trees next to a train track. I live on a lake and have three free roaming chickens (only in the backyard). One chicken went broody this summer and had a baby and seemed fine. Then yesterday when it was a torrential down pour i saw three and then an hour later only two. She didnt come home and now i cant find her. The other two dont seem phased by it. I see she mightve escaped into the neighbors since i see wood chips that were dug up, but she usually answers when i call her and i hear nothing. We dont have hawks, wild dogs, foxes, coyotes, or skunks. I havent seen an outdoor cat in years (also it was raining all day when the chicken went missing). Ive seen raccoons and opposoms but none have ever bothered my chickens and mainly eat neighbors garbage. I checked everywhere and dont see any feathers, blood or any sign she was taken. What couldve happened? Could a neighbor have taken her?

 

[sourland]

Sorry for the circumstances. Could she have gone broody on a hidden nest ?

 

[Cyprus]

Check under trees and bushes and in tall grass.
Raccoons are horrid opportunists. They will kill given the chance.

 

[Charlieissocoollike]

I have all around. I see no feathers, no blood, i asked neighbors to contact me if they see her. She already went broody this summer and her baby grew up. Is it possible she would do it again? I saw her yesterday lile around 10am. And since then since the heavy rain. Nothing. I have a neighbor who called animal control on me a couple of times cause he, admitting, he hates animals. Do you think he couldve done something? My mom and i are in the middle of a variance so he has no legal complaint.

 

[Cyprus]

I don't think your neighbor did anything.
Chances are she's hunkered down somewhere. It is possible she went broody again.

 

[Charlieissocoollike]

Ok. Dangit she probably did. She had been plucking at her belly feathers like the first time. *face palm* thanks i didnt know that was a possibility. She went broody in the coop last time so i have no idea where she would brood now. Just gotta keep looking. I just hope shes ok.

 

[Cyprus]

Ok. Dangit she probably did. She had been plucking at her belly feathers like the first time. *face palm* thanks i didnt know that was a possibility. She went broody in the coop last time so i have no idea where she would brood now. Just gotta keep looking. I just hope shes ok.

Please keep looking!!
I had a hidden broody that was killed yesterday by a fox. I didn't even know she had gone off to brood.

 

[Cyprus]

She was in tall grass behind a building

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Some of the places that I have had hens steal a nest:
in a barrel.
under the hood of a truck.
beneath the seat of my old John Deere tractor.
next to a tree trunk.
beneath a log in the woods.
in a barn loft.
in a corn crib.
behind a stack of cement blocks.
in a wood pile.
under a porch.
in a flower bed.
beneath shrubbery.

This Spring and Summer has been especially wet.

So a friend of mine in Mississippi was late cutting the grass on his chicken yard.

He has a Toro Zero Turn mower and when it became dry enough to mow the tall weeds he could only mow about 1 foot of grass at a time.

When he was mowing his chicken yard a foot at a time he inadvertently chopped up 2 sitting hens who refused to move. The grass and weeds were just too tall for him to see them.

Hens are in a catatonic state or stupor when they sit and you will sometimes step on them or almost step on them before they will move.

 

[Charlieissocoollike]

Thank you. Im still looking. Im gonna crawl under the deck soon. Just need to get mentally prepared for gross spiders. But i know she couldnt have been eaten since we literally have no predators other than raccoons and i saw her yesterday morning past raccoon time.