Where is my chook

[tahlia]

I have a flock of 9 chickens and one of my English game hens who's wings are clipped still manages to escape their fenced off area. They are usually free range but after a close encounter with a fox they are kept in their area. Today I left the house at 8 after letting them out of their coop into their area and when I got home I couldn't find my little black hen anywhere I searched all around my property which is very big about 15 acres of dense bush land and I couldn't find her. My mum said she went out shopping and came back three hours after she took me to school and hadn't seen my chook when she went to check on the others and thought nothing of it. It's now 10 at night and raining and we have snakes and foxes and feral cats and I'm really worried about her. There was no feathers or anything and the other hens were relaxed and wandering around unlike the last time there was a fox so I'm not thinking that it was a fox. Could it have been another bird like an owl? I'm in the Australian bush so there are lots of other animals too.
Could my chook come back? I'm really worried and want to know if there is a chance she might be back in the morning
Thanks

 

[sourland]

Is there any possibility that she may have gone broody on a hidden nest? If so she may show up for breakfast and then disappear again.

 

[donrae]

Broody is my thought, too. Game hen + spring = brooding hen, as a rule. You can keep looking for her, but from your description you may never find her if she's hidden her nest well. She may show back up once a day to eat--you could either follow her back to her nest, or abandon the clutch she's started and break her broodiness, or abandon the nest and start her brooding on a new clutch at home.