Neighbor's hen came home - after they moved. It's been two years!

[lengel]

Over two years ago, this hen disappeared. She's a beautiful Aracauna. The neighbors had raised four. Two disappeared and one was killed. Then another neighbor complained about their remaining hen who had become friends with our guinea hen, so they gave their last hen to us. That last hen has been confined in an enclosure with our two guinea hens ever since.

Today, one of the other hens came home. The neighbors moved last month. She's this huge bird, gorgeous and very distinctive looking. I found her in our six foot fenced dog yard when I went to let out the dogs - good thing I saw her first! She's completely wild but hung out with our birds all day. They drove her off a couple of times but she came back.

What would you do? Try to keep her, quarantine her, just let her do her thing? I've never experienced this kind of thing before. She was hand raised but is having nothing to do with humans at the moment.

 

[newlyweds]

They drove her off a couple of times

, poor thing. Keep her, feed her, and love her. I bet she will calm down with plenty of treats and attention.

 

[herefordlovinglady]

I agree, let her do her thing, the more you hand out treats and hang around her the quicker she will calm down and want to be a part of the flock. Your hens will get used to her, they are just establishing a pecking order with her. good luck, and what a neat story.

 

[artsyrobin]

i would catch her, quarantine her, while in quarantine you can resocialize her...

she's probably been in survival mode for all that time, so has forgotten how good humans can be...

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Agreed.

And post pictures on here if you can!

 

[DDRanch]

Quote:
Yes, I agree. And please monitor closely once (and if) you put them together lest she is violent towards them. What an unusual story. Do post pictures.

 

[lengel]

Thank you everyone. She was very cautious and observant with the other birds today. They let her hang around and when we had treat time, she just watched for a bit then tried getting in on it but backed off when anyone else went for anything. I think she'll fit in fine but I would like to catch her and put her in pen in the middle of everything for a bit.

For the moment, however, she seems somewhat suicidal. This is where she is roosting - on the exact wrong side of the dog yard fence. Then, in the morning, she just drops down and hangs out until I have to chase her out so the dogs won't get her! Good grief! What's that bird thinking?

 

[artsyrobin]

instead of chasing her out, couldn't you get her then?? poor little thing! she needs some TLC

 

[lengel]

Quote:
The dogs' fenced yard is really big. I'm hoping that she'll wander into a enclosure with chain link on the top so I can just close the gate and won't traumatize her by chasing her around with a net. Clearly she can fly pretty high - that's a six foot fence in the picture. She's wild. I'm going to try to interact with her over the next couple of days and see if I can get closer during group treat times. I think she'll stay. When I think about it, the people who raised her didn't feed her or her sisters. They thought she should just eat bugs. Tricky during the winter though.

She seemed like she was settling in today and I think she'll get more so when she realizes that there's food and water available all of the time. Plus treat time. The turkeys seem to like her too. Or they're afraid of her, which is more likely.

Thanks for thinking about her! She's a cool bird.

 

[Tala]

If you can snatch her off her roost then you won't have to chase her. My birds are fairly tame, but that's how I catch them