Missing chicken

[sammyh312]

EXCELLENT!!! sooooo glad to hear that!!!

 

[Strange_Screams]

See, what makes this confusing...

So I get home about 10:30 every night, and my neighbor usually closes the coop door for me, except for one week out of the month, he works the same shift as I do, 2 -10. Ive never had any problems, as the coons in the area are fat off cat food(left out by my landlord) and only attack another neighbors trashcan of dog food (double locking with bungee cords and he ties it up with cinch cords on top of all that, apparently coons prefer commercial made dog/cat food over anything else) when the other cat food runs out.

I get home every evening, and whether the coop is shut or not, I look in, with an flashlight for eggs and count all the chooks.....7 total, 3 that have been here a while and thelma whos in the egg laying club, so she hangs out with the first three....sometimes... and the 3 young ones....

every night i count, Henny Penny, Sweat pea, Red, Thelma, pullet pullet pullet....but last night i only got to 6, so i count from every window, then I open the human door, and i count, and i look in the egg boxes and dig around in the bedding, and get the hens all upset, and counted and counted, and no Henny penny.

So I get frantic, I go searching all there usual haunts, from favorite to least, and even go up and down the creek where they hang out when its the hottest, (I am thinking the whole time, Different predators leave different traces, look for feathers, look for carcases, it was 102 today, if she had heat stroke and she is still alive I can save her) I look under every stick, in every tree, two hours later, I go back to the coop and count Red, Thelma, Sweat pea, pullet pullet pullet,....and I go inside and cry hoping everything will be ok.

So, I dont know how I missed her, or how, if she ever was missing, she found her way back inside a locked coop(as in I use those key latches, like you put on a ring of keys or the end of a dog tie out).

And every morning before I let them out I do a head count, Red, Thelma, Sweat pea, pullet, pullet pullet, and Henny? she popped out of nowhere, so maybe I cant count....

Sigh, I swear I'm not crazy

 

[tclegg]

It's the haunting disease of chicken math--it gets you coming AND going.....LOL

or should I say before during and after...LOL