Well, quite honestly she could have been missing for weeks. I don't count heads and have a lot of big blue fluffy chickens.....so it was only after selling off so many that I realized I didn't seem to have enough of them......Grrrrrr.......
With only the 1 big bird missing (and the bantam a while back), I don't know....she isn't laying yet, so probably not broody somewhere. No clue. Very strange. I do have a strand of electric at the top of the fence but haven't had it on in a year.....guess I will hook it back up and turn it on again. it's got enough juice to knock a predator into next year.
You would think that a hawk kill would leave some evidence.......and this bird was definitely too big and clumsy to fly over the fence. Too big to fit through the fence. Definitely going to need to take a little trip around the yard in the daylight tomorrow morning.
I don't even lock up my mottled pen or my rooster pen. The birds have hutches to go into at night, but neither hutch is closed. I know, I know, I'm naughty. I just take a chance with the roosters since their big pen is uncovered. With the mottleds, their pen is hardware cloth and covered, so not as big of a risk. Other than hawks, I don't have a high predator load here usually. I have a perimeter fence that keeps most things out. I haven't seen anything other than rabbits and squirrels in my yard in ages.
The missing hen is one who had lived in my big coop which is secured at night.....so gosh, really...WHO KNOWS. Very annoying though. How come the extra roosters are never the ones to go missing? sigh.
