Shuffles has Disappeared!

[silkiechicken]

Good luck in finding her, maybe if she is broody, you can catch her out for that one 15 min time to get food and water.

 

[kayri]

! !!! She's back !!!!!

I came back from work and 2 of the other 4 chickens had (of course) flown over the electric fence so when I called them, 3 chickens appeared, one of which was Shuffles!

She appears to be fine, but a little sleepy. When all of the rest of the chickens were pecking and scratching this afternoon, she just stood on one foot and her eyes would slowly close and then she would kind-of jerk them open again. She wasn't very hungry, but did eat the corn and sunflower seeds my daughter hand- fed her. I watched the chickens carefully between 4 and 5 to make sure she wasn't going to trot off to some secret hiding place, but she was the first one into the coop, a good 20 minutes before the others.

She didn't hang around the other chickens much this afternoon, she spent a lot of time by herself. Is that a sign of broodiness? or was she just tired? What do you think happened? You think she went into the city for a night out?

Thanks again everyone for the good wishes and positive thoughts. I'm going to put a GPS transmitter on that chicken...

 

[CarriBrown]

If you notice her frantically trying to get out of the coop, pacing, squawking, etc., then she has a nest someplace. I'm glad you found her!

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

she's probably dehydrated, give her a water bowl to herself as the other girls might not be accepting her in to the flock again.

 

[kayri]

If she had a nest somewhere would she have just eaten and then run back to it, instead of voluntarily going into the coop? Maybe she's just a bad mom. . . that's OK too, there's room in the world for bad moms. ..

 

[fallenweeble]

yea shuffles!
i'm so glad she came home and is okay.
what a mysterious chicken!

 

[kayri]

Hi Bawkadoodledoo,

It dumped rain last night so there was water everywhere. I thought she'd be hungry, but she wasn't. Don't know if she had just unearthed 20 earthworms, or if she was just tired. She is the dominant hen, and is about 2 inches taller (and bigger) than the rest, so there really haven't been any squabbles.

It's not the first time she has disappeared from the group, but she has never been gone overnight before. Wonder where the hen goes????

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

maybe there was a "rooster down the street" ?

 

[Ang]

So glad she is back!

 

[CovenantCreek]

She probably didn't sleep very well being outside the safe haven of her coop. She probably heard every little noise and thought it was a predator about to find her. I'm sure she's very happy to be snuggled up in her coop with her buddies alongside.