Hey all.......really bummed and annoyed right now. Got home from my family thing, and as I'm out doing my tucking in/ head count I notice my two month old silkie cockerel is missing. So I don't panick, since these chooks have only been outdoors for going on 4 days. In a newly built/secured enclosure.(this thing is tough) covered aluminum porch, 3 side livestock panels, then reinforced by 6 ft tall chainlink. the only unsecured part would have to be the maybe foot gap where the fence doesn't touch the porch roof? My three dogs were in the yard caddy corner to this pen all day. I can't imagine any predator would risk being on their turf in broad daylight? Would a hawk land and meticulously go through this gap? There are big redtails. I saw no signs of a struggle(feathers, blood,messed up fencing). Scowered the surrounding property by flashlight in the hopes he squeezed out and hunkered down somewhere. the four pullets, and little Brahma cockerel were all there as talkative as can be. this guy was special, an amberwaves lavender silkie that I not only loved butad high breeding hopes for. my parental chook instincts have me wanting to go out right now gather the lot up and not do outdoors again till much later :-( . could he still be ok somehow? Should I deem this pen unsafe? Am I over reacting? It just stinks raising these little buggers and loving, and investing Only for these random disappearances to come along and knock us on our butts. ugh not a happy day, but thanks for the venting session :-(
I hope the little guy turns up. From reading the posts on BYC I am amazed at how persistant animals are at getting to chickens.The small spaces they get through,or the chewing they do to get a free dinner.A foot gap is huge in terms of access.Toss some bird netting over it for a temp slow down.
