The case of the disappearing/appearing hen!

[JenNY99]

2 weeks ago, one of our 6 month old BO's didn't return to the coop at night with the rest of the chickens. We looked all over for her and found no trace. Even though we have fox and coyotes around here, we have not yet had a problem with them - we assume that this is because of our 2 big male dogs - but we thought that a predator must have gotten her. The next morning I got up at 6 AM to pee and could see her standing at the pop door squawking. We let the rest of the girls (and our rooster) out and they hung out all day. Night comes and once again, she is missing. This time we really scoured our land - I sent the dogs noisily running through the woods, thinking it would scare her and she would make noise and/or run. No trace of her anywhere. So we finally gave up and haven't seen her since. My DH surmised that she laid an egg outside and she was sitting on it and probably during the night a predator got her.

Fast forward to today. DH is outside and who does he see? The missing hen! He tried to catch her but she was really skittish. But, from what he could see, she looked fine - not scraggly and a good weight. I get home from work and she is gone again - at least not with the other chickens. We'll see if she shows up tonight in the coop, but isn't this weird?

Any thoughts?

 

[Judy]

My bet is she has a nest somewhere and, if you have a rooster, she will return with chicks in tow.

 

[sourland]

Definately sounds like a broody hen with a hidden nest.