Missing hen might be hiding

[Magpie2]

We have a hen who disappeared a few days ago. The day before she disappeared, she tried to hide in the forest and was extremely mad when we found her. We have a lot of cameras around so we know approximately where she should be but we can’t access it. She didn’t head towards the trees this time but likely went under the house/porch. There’s a sort of crawl space underneath half of the house but not enough space for a person underneath the rest of the house/porch, we think this is where she’s hiding.
She disappeared from the cameras around a hole that leads underneath the porch and hasn’t shown up leaving from any angle around the house.

She’s a very clever hen and is quite good at foraging. She stays very still and quiet when she wants to be alone and is very loud when she wants something.
My hope is that she’s gone broody and wants a private place to sit on her eggs. She was laying almost every 24 hours before she left. Some other hens have been laying under the porch as well lately but in places where we can still see them. Her eggs would be fertile so they would likely hatch.
We’re leaving food and water outside for her.

The cats sometimes go under the house so I’m tempted to attach a camera collar to one of them and see if they’ve spotted her but I’m running out of ideas.
Does anyone have any idea what we can possibly do?

 

[The crazy Poultry hoarder]

She might be broody

 

[Magpie2]

She might be broody

We hope that’s the case since we’d see her again in under a month but we aren’t even sure exactly where she is or if the chicks could get out from underneath.

 

[Gax000]

She is gorgeous!!!

 

[Jojosine]

A bit late reply and hopefully she returned with chicks.

I had a missing hen and she came back with 7 chicks. She is named Bib Vicious as she is super protective and when we had to catch her to put her and her babies in a safe coop, she attacked my husband! I am impressed with her because we had very wet weather and she also had to cross a single track road to get to our house. She even came back on the only day of the week when both me and my husband are home, almost as if she had planned it

 

[Magpie2]

A bit late reply and hopefully she returned with chicks.

I had a missing hen and she came back with 7 chicks. She is named Bib Vicious as she is super protective and when we had to catch her to put her and her babies in a safe coop, she attacked my husband! I am impressed with her because we had very wet weather and she also had to cross a single track road to get to our house. She even came back on the only day of the week when both me and my husband are home, almost as if she had planned it

I’m glad yours came back. How long was she gone for? Around 30 days? I’m guessing by how many chicks.
It’s not even been a week since our girl disappeared, I really hope she comes back if we can’t find her.

 

[Jojosine]

Ours was gone for around 21 days which is also the time for eggs to develop and hatch. I think the chicks were about 1 - 2 days old when she came back because they are the same size as the broodies which also hatched their eggs a few days ago.

I hope your's will come back with chicks too. Have you got a lot of predators? And have you seen any feathers or other signs of a struggle? If not and she was making broody noises before she went missing, she may indeed sit on a nest too. I'll keep my fingers crossed

 

[Magpie2]

Ours was gone for around 21 days which is also the time for eggs to develop and hatch. I think the chicks were about 1 - 2 days old when she came back because they are the same size as the broodies which also hatched their eggs a few days ago.

I hope your's will come back with chicks too. Have you got a lot of predators? And have you seen any feathers or other signs of a struggle? If not and she was making broody noises before she went missing, she may indeed sit on a nest too. I'll keep my fingers crossed

We have a fox that comes in the yard sometimes but I don’t think it’s ever gone under the house, the dog would probably loose her mind if it did. We haven’t seen any predators lately on the cameras either, hopefully that continues. We’ll be setting up a “fence” for one of those buzzing collars soon so our dog can patrol a larger area, hopefully that will keep even more dangers away.

Just an interesting aside, the dog is a heeler and she grew up with security cameras streaming to screens that she could see. She knows what’s on the screen and will watch and react depending on what she sees. Clever girl.

 

[Jojosine]

We have a fox that comes in the yard sometimes but I don’t think it’s ever gone under the house, the dog would probably loose her mind if it did. We haven’t seen any predators lately on the cameras either, hopefully that continues. We’ll be setting up a “fence” for one of those buzzing collars soon so our dog can patrol a larger area, hopefully that will keep even more dangers away.

Just an interesting aside, the dog is a heeler and she grew up with security cameras streaming to screens that she could see. She knows what’s on the screen and will watch and react depending on what she sees. Clever girl.
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wow! I didn't know dogs could do that, very clever indeed!

 

[Magpie2]

Four weeks and still no sign of her.