rooster went missing today, help! *Update: found safe and sound :)

[77horses]

Not necessarily an emergency...but another chicken went missing just before dark today.

It was the youngest rooster, named Julian, who was almost about a year old now. He was with the rest of the flock today, free ranging, when a thunderstorm rolled in. The whole flock took shelter near the coop or under the porch or anything else they could find to hide under, and that was the last time I saw them all before I was gone and didn't get back until dark. When I got back, all were counted for except for Julian. He's the 3rd chicken to have mysteriously disappeared in the past 1 1/2 years. The first one was a bantam hen, but when she went missing we did find the remains in the woods. The 2nd one was a hen who had developed a slight limp in her leg. She went missing one day without a trace and never was found. And now Julian has gone missing, too. The odd thing is that for all three of these occurrences, it has been raining. Coincidence? Maybe. It just seems like whenever it rains, if the chickens happen to be out a little past dark, something happens.

I spent a while looking around the entire perimeter of the property for him with a flashlight in the dark, but there was no sign of him. It's still raining out right now. So, either some predator got him, or he was hiding somewhere from the rain until it got too dark to find his way back to the coop, and is still hiding somewhere out there. I guess all I can do I hope that I'll find him with the rest of the flock tomorrow morning.

 

[CMV]

Sorry for your loss. I am hoping he just got spooked and will be waiting for you outside the coop in the morning.

Do you have a game camera? I have found that they are very helpful in identifying what is wandering around when human eyes aren't present. I keep one running at all times to ensure I know what is around before it becomes a problem.

Last summer I kept losing birds. They would be there one minute and then vanish without a trace. So frustrating. I never did figure out for sure what was snatching them. They ended up having to go into a lock down for several weeks to solve the problem. I did some major work cleaning out underbrush on my and my neighbor's properties to prevent predators from having a hiding spot. I had 2 game cams set up to try to see what was catching my birds. Still nothing. Birds kept disappearing. Fortunately, it stopped as quickly as it started after I locked down the chickens. By the end of the summer they were back to free-ranging without an issue.

 

[Sylvestor12]

If you find out what the problem animal is I'd kill it. If the space between the disappearances are that large it might come back a year later even if you lockdown. One reason your chickens are disappearing in the rain is because they are more vunerable (can't see as well, usually overcasty). If you find out what the thing is, if it's an animal you might want to try to shoot it then and there but I just wouldn't tell anyone. But, if you want to do it offically you'd want to get a book showing when you can hunt what when. I hope he turns up; best wishes to you.

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: thankfully, Julian was found waiting outside the coop for his flock this morning! He was perfectly fine. Must've been scary though, being out in the dark all night.

I'm just glad he's safe and sound now!
Thanks everyone!