# The great chicken hunt!



## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Well if you read my introduction post you will know that I am very new to chickens only having had my birds since Sunday and all. 
Today was the 1st day that I opened the hen house in the morning before leaving for work - I work from 6am and never really know what time I'll be getting home, some days I'm home by 12 and other days I'm not home until after 5pm all depending on what work I have to do.
Today was 1 of those days where I was home late (around 4:30pm).
Now I work for my step father and shortly before I was going to go home he asked me if I had chickens - I hadn't told him yet that I had - then he told me that one of my neighbors had phoned him and said that they had seen a cat in my garden and now they only see 1 chicken. I was not worried and told him that they are very skittish birds and were most likely just hiding in the coop. 
I later phoned m son and asked him to check on the ladies for me and he said that the old man from next door had said that one of our chickens was in his (the neighbors) garden and that my son had only counted 5 chickens in the run/coop. I asked him who was missing and he said was one of the white ones and I knew right away that it must be the leghorn.
As soon as I got home my neighbor who is sitting on his balcony calls me over and tells me that he found one of my hens in his garden and he caught her and put her over the fence back into my garden so she would not wander off. I thank him profusely and run off into my garden to check on the hens and sure enough it is the leghron missing. I live in an apartment and my garden is bordered my the gardens of the other people living in the same building and my garden is the only one completely fenced in but the little lady was not in my garden! She had gotten out! 
A frantic search of the surrounding gardens and I find her in the bushes by the communal washing lines! Lucky for me I managed to catch her fairly easily. I took her upstairs and clipped her wings before releasing her back into the run with the other hens. I'll have to keep a close eye on her in future!

pic: Strutting around like she owns the place while I clean up the feathers after clipping her wings before taking he back outside.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If there was a cat after them you should probably look in to putting a cover on the run. Something that is predator proof. Now that your girl can't fly, she can't fly away to escape. 

Leghorns are flighty by nature and don't get any better with maturity. 

And you lucked out finding her so quickly. Some go missing for days or are never found. I think some of them are birds that show up on people's doorsteps that already have a flock of chickens.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I'll bet you had ultra anxiety at work. Maybe you should have a nice sized pen for the times you are not home. Something with an enclosed top. Mine have learned that if they jump the fence, they are all alone! However I have 2 JG/Bantam hens and they hop the fence every day and back. Something about those bantam chickens.


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

I don't think there was a cat after my ladies, I just think my step father didn't understand what the neighbor was talking about since he didn't even know I had chickens at all yet.
Possibly what happened is that the neighbor, who lives in the apartment below me and has he garden directly next to mine, must of startled the hens when she mowed her lawn and the one took flight right over the fence and kept going into the garden of the next house.

But anyway we have hopefully solved the problem of them getting out now. My mother bought a roll of netting and put it over the coop today. When she got to my place with the net to put it on one of the little easter eggers was out but she was trying to get back in through the fencing - I think she forgot she could fly back in - so my mom just scooped her up and dumped her back in the run then put the netting on.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

They do that. Most of the time I watched my young Guineas do that. For some reason younger than a year they would fly over the fence in to the road. But when they saw the rest of the flock they'd come unglued because they couldn't get back to the main flock by walking through the fence.


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

I had to double the netting this morning so the holes would be smaller because it would seem they could get through then netting since I found one the ladies in the tree next to the run! Silly birds! 
I was so surprised to find her there that I didn't think to take pics - just plucked her out the tree and, after a little cuddle, put her back in the run with the rest of the flock. 
It is now almost 6pm and no one else escaped today so doubling the net seems to be working...


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

LOL Now that you mentioned the holes I have had a couple of mine do that. Some how they figure out the opening is just large enough to jump flap through and it's instant freedom. Darned birds. 

But not all of them seem to be that conniving, luckily for us.


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