Chicken bald back

[newcountrygirl]

This morning I let out my 5 chickens plus Percy Proudfoot the cockerel, to freerange. They have all been pootling around together. At 3pm I took the dog for a walk and as we came back down the road to our gate the neighbour was coming the other way. "Have you lost a chicken?" she asks. She was carrying Chicken Little - one of our Polish Frizzles.

Where did you find her? I asked. "She was sat in our hen run eating the food" she said. She also said she couldnt work out how Chicken Little had got in with her hens as 1. her hen run has a roof and 2 the door into the run was closed.

 

This is the second time in 3 weeks that Chicken Little has been on an adventure. The last time when all the girls went back into their coops for the night she wasnt with them. When they have been out - I always check they are back in their respective coops and close the run doors. I searched for her up and down our 3 acre field and couldnt find her and came to the conclusion she had been taken by a fox. I ended up having to close up the run for the night with her still out when it got dark. The next day another neighbour knocked at the door and said that she was sat in the middle of another neighbours beautifully manicured lawn. God knows where she spent the night that time.

[mullethunter]

You should put a camera on her

[gavclojak]

Maybe a silly question but could a neighbour/friend/foe be playing a prank in you?

[Alis girls]

Probably has a spade hidden under her wing or they have a secret trapdoor only they know about or she gets beamed up like in Star Trek and deposited in next doors run.

[Mars]

. She also said she couldnt work out how Chicken Little had got in with her hens as 1. her hen run has a roof and 2 the door into the run was closed.

May be she was free ranging her hens and your hen got into the run with them.

[newcountrygirl]

I dont think so Gavclojak they arent really the sort to play pranks in fact we dont really have much to do with them. She told me her chickens hadnt been out of their run that day either. Very strange.

[Cat tails]

Maybe some passerby found a in their eyes rogue chicken and wanted to return it to its home. Your neighbour's run being the closest chicken home?

 

I had something similar with two rabbits once. Found them in my street wandering around and had to look for the nearest garden they might have escaped from. I guessed right though!

[Valkyrie]

There must be a little hole that she can get through. Last year Skye kept appearing on her own in the fenced off part which is slowly returning to pretty. Until she kept getting in and did her best to dig up the saxifrage. I thought I'd blocked everything possible and yet she still escaped. So I sat on the wall and watched. She got through the netting, it had been cut near the intersection at one time (probably OH and his lawnmower!) and while it appeared solid, it made a nice little flap for her to squeeze through.

Yesterday the big fat orpie got in the veggie beds. I thought she'd got under the fruit cage netting as she's been able to push into the strawberries and look perfectly confused as to how she was going to get out. I had to let her out. Then blow me down with a feather and OH said Skye's in the veg patch. WHAT!!! And then I saw - a little gap had appeared between chicken netting and the fruit cage netting. Chicken netting now stuck firmly in place and one very disgruntled pekin who told me in no uncertain terms that I always spoil her fun. The orpie wasn't bothered.

[newcountrygirl]

Cat Tails - dont think that is what happened as neither of our runs can be seen from the front. We have a very long drive and the run is in the back. The same with the neighbour.

 

Valkyrie - there is a gap in the hedge she can get through but the mystery was how she got into the closed hen run next door. I am going to re-christen her Houdini!

[Valkyrie]

[Alis girls]

Years ago on Corrie I think it was someones garden gnome was nicked and then started sending its owners postcards from different places. Time to worry when you get a postcard from CL with a picture of her on Brighton Beach with a 99 in her wing.

[Mars]

She told me her chickens hadnt been out of their run that day either. Very strange.

May be she let them out for a while and she forgot that.

[mimi5]

Well they do say reality is stranger than fiction

 

Newcountrygirl...........did your girls ever start laying for you?????

[newcountrygirl]

Haha Alis girl - I had better keep checking the post.

 

Mimi5 - yes they eventually have all started laying. The are contrary madams. The thing that gets me mad is the two Polish Frizzles are in their own house and run next to the other 3 girls and Percy. When I let them out they all mooch around together and quite often go into each others runs together. When it gets dusk they each go to their separate houses. I tried putting them all together in the biggest one and straight away they were pecking Chicken Little - yet in the daytime they are quite happy altogether. Its so frustrating - cos really I would like them all in together but every time I try World War 3 starts.

[mimi5]

yes they eventually have all started laying.

 

Oh good

 

Its so frustrating - cos really I would like them all in together but every time I try World War 3 starts.

 

I guess if they are all happy and healthy, go with it

[newcountrygirl]

Thanks Mimi5 - eventually I will persuade them to all be in together if it kills me!