So one of your ladies did not come back to the coop before nightfall....did they ever return?

glad you found her - I'm a new owner so that is interesting news for me. we clipped their wings on one side, but how high should fences be to keep them in yard. We have really high fences, except one is as low as 4 feet in parts.
 
I let my girls out of the coop to do what chickens do....hang out in our garden and scratch around in the woods.

I get a knock in the door about an hour later....one of my neighbors ask if I had lost a chicken.....apparently, one of my bantam girls hopped the 5 ft fence, crossed the road, and was hunkered in my neighbors garden.

After retrieving her, my immediate fear was, where was everyone else? Come to find out my neighbor's dog got out, and you know the rest. One of my girls was injured; punctures on one wing, but not on the body. My neighbor girl found her on the other side of the creek, wet and injured.

One by one, the rest of my girls came home (to the shake of the treat jar), except one. Greta has always been the most skittish, not even attracted to the lure of a treat, always on guard. She hasn't made it back by nightfall. I'm not sure if she was taken out (but the solo dog was already chewing on my poor Rosie), sitting under someone's deck, or has traveled so far that she can't find her way back.

My girls only free range for a few hours of the day and they don't go far. If Greta wanted to find her way home, would she call to her flock if she was lost?
I know this post is old but in case someone else like me is looking for advice I thought this might be helpful in response to if she would call out to her flock. I had a very similar experience where we had a dog attack and I thought I had lost a couple of my chickens. I had not been looking for them because I thought they were gone but later that night happened to walk past where one was hiding and when she heard me talking she called out which enabled me to find her in a spot I would not have thought a chicken could fit. Not sure if this is common but over time I have noticed that if one chicken strays too far from the others she will call out as well until she finds her way back. I hope you found Greta, loosing one is often difficult.
 
I know it's bound to happen eventually. I hate to think of them trying to make it on their own overnight around here we are swamped with coyote hawks and owls. If they don't come in at evening I doubt they will survive on their own. ours seem to be pretty good about it we have the light on in the coop for a few hours in the evening so they naturally come to the light when it gets dark out and are waiting for us to close it up for extra protection.
 

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