Will a lost chicken return?

[MolliesDollies]

My flock of 7, one rooster and 6 pullets, get some limited free-range time when I'm home. They are just about 6 months old, and have started to venture further afield lately, but always together. Yesterday when I called them in before leaving for my daughters birthday party, all but 2 of the pullets came back. Usually these are the 2 that stay the closest to the rooster! We called and called, and looked in all their usual places, but to no avail. I locked the others in their enclosed run but left the outer run open for their return. We got home at 5 and the sun had already set. One of them returned and I shoed her in to the coop. It had snowed. We searched all over but still didn't find Caprese.
I should say that so far no predators have ever been seen around our house except hawks/eagles/owls and we live on a quiet country dirt road. We are in the woods, so predators deeper in are possible. Caprese is the largest, a Lavender Orp, who doesn't fly so well anymore.
Is there any chance that she just got lost and could still return? or should I prepare my daughter that her chicken is gone for good?

 

[andreanar]

They can return, yes. If they haven't been taken by a predator or if they haven't decided to go broody and sit on eggs somewhere. I would take a nice long walk all around and call her. Look for feathers. My girls are trained to come when I shake some scratch in a can and call them. I lost one pullet when she went across a busy road and couldn't get back across, so she set up to live in the woods over there. It took me 3 days and a bunch of people to finally catch her.

 

[Zoomie]

Yes, there is a chance she could return.

Sadly though I would like to point out that just because you don't see a predator it does not mean they are not present. In my area there are MANY predators and none of my neighbors even know it, because they "never see them". However I know for a fact that coyotes come into my yard pretty much every single night, even though I never see them. I know, because I can tell the difference between a coyote track and a dog track. Pretty much every single night we also have grey fox show up. I know because I can recognize their tracks and scat; same for raccoons. Yet I never see any of these animals.

Still, give it a good hard try. Keep looking, keep calling, because sometimes they hide well enough that they can escape predation.

 

[Mrs. K]

I would prepare your daughter. If she does come back, it will be good news, but I would not expect her to come back.

I think predators probably got her, and they will be back. Probably better keep them in lock down for a while, so the predators move on.

Mrs K

 

[hconway13]

Something traumatic happened to our 4 chickens (pullet aged?) the other day. We left them out to free range as we always do, but once it got dark and we went out to put them away, we found only 1 and she was not alive (feathers strewn everywhere). We checked all over for the other 3 but couldn’t find them. We left the coop open and the light on and went to bed. It reached 25° that night and we fully expected that our chickens would never return. The next morning I woke to one of them trapped in our garden (which we keep blocked off from them). We searched around more and found another one of our girls hiding deep in some weeds and vines - still alive!! but very upset. We couldn’t find the 3rd one. 2 more days went by with no sightings and finally on day 3 after going missing, she just showed up back at the coop. Chickens are a mystery, and we definitely did not expect her to come home, but clearly it is possible.

 

[K0k0shka]

You should prepare yourself and your kids to deal with loss the moment you decide to free range. Any free range for any amount of time regardless of whether it's supervised or not. You can always hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst, because with free ranging, the worst will happen sooner or later.

 

[NatJ]

@hconway13
@K0k0shka
The other posts in this thread are dated 2017.
I am sure the original poster is no longer wondering about whether their chicken will come home.

 

[K0k0shka]

@hconway13
@K0k0shka
The other posts in this thread are dated 2017.
I am sure the original poster is no longer wondering about whether their chicken will come home.

Ugh I can't believe I fell for this. I don't drag out ancient posts myself, but when somebody else does, they show up in the feed as new and this time I forgot to check the original post's date. Also, it's annoying when people come on here asking for help and then never come back to provide any closure... As we see, people dig out old posts, and can learn from others' experiences and mistakes. If only those were followed up on.

 

[Beccidboo1997]

Something traumatic happened to our 4 chickens (pullet aged?) the other day. We left them out to free range as we always do, but once it got dark and we went out to put them away, we found only 1 and she was not alive (feathers strewn everywhere). We checked all over for the other 3 but couldn’t find them. We left the coop open and the light on and went to bed. It reached 25° that night and we fully expected that our chickens would never return. The next morning I woke to one of them trapped in our garden (which we keep blocked off from them). We searched around more and found another one of our girls hiding deep in some weeds and vines - still alive!! but very upset. We couldn’t find the 3rd one. 2 more days went by with no sightings and finally on day 3 after going missing, she just showed up back at the coop. Chickens are a mystery, and we definitely did not expect her to come home, but clearly it is possible.

Hi my name is Rebecca Tyler I have a young black prerrie bluebell egger who clearly went up the hill and I think some of neighbors scared her up there her name is pepper I tried calling her and kept looking for her what should I do any suggestions please and thank you that little black prerrie bluebell egger is my angel

 

[Beccidboo1997]

Hi my name is Rebecca Tyler I have a young black prerrie bluebell egger who clearly went up the hill and I think some of neighbors scared her up there her name is pepper I tried calling her and kept looking for her what should I do any suggestions please and thank you that little black prerrie bluebell egger is my angel