This morning we let our hens out of their coop around 9:30am and between then and 1:30pm, our white Leghorn, Priscilla, went missing. She's flown over the fence once before but we found her right on the other side. We have a 7 foot privacy fence that keeps them in really well but there's one gate that's only about 4 feet tall. She has seemingly just disappeared- no chicken tracks in the small scattering of snow of snow we got overnight outside the gate she probably would have flown over, no white feathers, nothing. We've driven around the neighboring streets several times, walked up and down our alley, looked in our neighbors backyards, looked up in the trees in our yard and in the alley and we can't find any sign of her. We even checked the busy streets nearby to make sure there wasn't a white chicken who had gotten hit by a car. We went out this evening after the sun went down and shined flashlights up in the trees to see if she went up to roost. Does it make sense that a chicken would just disappear like that? The other 4 hens were still in the yard, clucking and pecking away. I don't understand why once she got over the fence, she would have disappeared rather than staying where she could hear the rest of her flock. Also, how much would a chicken theoretically wander? I am not sure how much of our neighborhood to drive through looking for her. My instinct is that she's somewhere close by but either up in a tree or somewhere else that we can't see. I really just want her to come home- I hate thinking of her wandering around in our neighborhood, with no food and dogs around and everything else.
I'm sorry about Priscilla, losing a bird is tough thing. They can wander off and just seem to disappear. I looked three days for a missing hen until I finally found her acres away. Being the bearer of bad news, Hawk and Fox can both take a chicken and leave no trace behind. We have had both happen. Hopefully this isn't the case but it does happen. Hopefully she is just hiding and will come out. Good luck.
It is strange that chickens seem to disappear with out a trace and then suddenly appear a few days later. This has happened to a show silkie of mine, she was missing for at least a day and a half, and we have coons, foxes, owls, about any predator, not to mention it rained most of the time she was gone. She was at the door step when we woke up.
Great news- I found her this morning! I went out to look in the trees again and just happened to look under a tarp that covered a box of firewood (I looked there multiple times yesterday) and saw a cm of red comb. She somehow managed to wedge herself behind the box, on her back and was stuck on her back all day and all night. I took her inside to warm up and after getting her equilibrium back, she gobbled down cottage cheese & warm oatmeal with cheese and blueberries. Poor, poor baby!
Glad she turned up! I imagine the 4' gate needs to get taller! I have a couple that can scale the 6 foot fence, no problem.