OMG. Baby chick escaped.

[mamabigbird]

I have a nursery pen,( with hen and two chicks), which is a subdivided section of the big run.
There are 18 laying hens in the big one. I have been trying to figure out when and how to integrate them,(What me worry? lol)
When I went out a few minutes ago to let the big girls out to free range I noticed that one of the babies was on the wrong side of the fence. IN WITH THE HENS!!!! ALONE!!!! WITHOUT MAMA!!!!
Nobody had harmed it at all. The only way to get the baby back in with mama was to open the hatch between the pens.
I can't for the life of me figure out where the chick got through or under. But now I know that the chicks are okay with rest of the crew I guess they can start living together.
It will be interesting to see if mama takes the chicks to the coop or stays in the nursery with them. Or takes them out free ranging!!!! AAAARRRGH! Now I'm worried again. I may have to spend some time out there lurking in the area, spying on them.

 

[sumi]

You have my sympathy! Chickens have amazing abilities when it comes to escaping. My DH and I watched a hen walk through a fence once. Still puzzled by that one! We checked that fence top to bottom, over and over, no holes, but she got out

Weird.
Glad your baby's o.k.!

 

[mamabigbird]

So my sis and I went out to see how it was going and while we were there mom and one baby were happily pecking around inside the bigger portion pen area. The other one (the escapee from this morning) was now on the outside of the bigger pen trying to find its' way back to momma again. Sis on the outside was trying to catch baby, who in its' panic managed get tangled between the two layers of fencing (small mesh on inside and bigger mesh on the outside). Baby was panicked, momma hen was furious and charging the fence and eventually we reunited momma and both babies in the small nursery pen and with bits of wood and other materials hopefully have closed the gaps.
So we are back to square one with everyone segregated again. SIGH.
I was thinking of calling the little brown chick "lucky" but now I think its' name is "TROUBLE". Little bugger is an escape artist.