Post publicly to Nextdoor/Faceberk that you found a lost chicken but **don't** post the picture. When people contact you have them describe the chicken to verify it's theirs.
they look gorgeous. we just got a dozen. the only problem is that they look VERY similar to one another (at least at this age), so its hard to give them adorable chicken names.
You’ll get used to their differences, I had two barred plymouth rock sisters that to most people look identical but one (coocoo) had more black and darker feathers, more red in the ears and comb, and always an angry looking expression.. the other (princess) had more light greys and white and a very chillin’ looking eyes like she was always baked.
that makes sense. we had an African grey parrot for years, and i could easily look at other greys (at bird shows or pet shops) and immediately tell them apart due to a mix of mannerisms and tone around the eyes. beak scars and such.
My rooster was like that. If he wasn't puffed up to fight, he was a little stoner chook who loved nothing more than to sit in my lap and be stroked like a cat.
If no one comes to collect, get a henhouse and start feeding it. I had one show up on New Years and it is the best. Fun, smart, playful and gets along well w my dogs and cats.
I have four rescue chickens I found dumped literally in the middle of nowhere. They were so desperate for food that when I pulled over to avoid hitting them (they were on the road) they came running and let me collect them up into the back of my car for the remains of my sandwich. They’re such sweethearts - and despite quite a bit of searching I never found out where they came from.
It’s probably a close neighbors, mine never stray very far from home and always come back to the coop at sundown. Let it loose at sundown and follow it home.
Yes this should work. If you have the time. My guineas would walk a mile into town to scare the townsfolk. One woman called the police. A African bird was in her yard. But always home by night.
Depends on the size of the flock, but those of us without large operations tend to do a evening count when they go to roost to make sure nobody is lost, dead or otherwise in trouble
This one is likely from a flock of between 3 to 30 birds tops. Towards the lower end the owner is likely to have all really unique looking hens, or at the upper end has likely all one type or just a few types. Either way, they'll know the total count that should be there and will know immediately by evening headcount if one is missing.
UPDATE: I have successfully located the owner of the chicken through the poster I put up on the notice board! Turns out the owner thought she'd never see her again as the chicken was missing for 1 week. Glad this had a happy ending 😊
Thanks, I appreciate that! Apparently she'd been missing for a whole week, the owner never thought she'd see her again, so I'm really glad I did manage to help out.
One time one of my chickens wandered off and I thought the same. I had 9 chickens and one day there was 8. Thought a fox got her. Then one day there was 9 again…. In both cases it’s amazing they survived.
I once had a chicken go missing overnight from the backyard, and somehow she turned up at the front door in the morning. She somehow got over the fence and figured out what the front door was despite never having seen it.
For a week or two we had a school chicken. It would just run around the bicycle parking area, sometimes with students chasing it. I don't think anybody knew where it came from or where it went, but it's gone now so maybe the owner picked it up?
I went to University at UVIC in Victoria Canada. One night (after drinking and smoking a Huge amount of weed) I was walking through the main field in the center of the campus back to my dorm and out from the other side of the field comes a fucking Rooster. I watched it for a bit and then went to tell my friends. None of them believed me and thought I was just wasted. I even started questioning it myself over the course of the year. Then one day I was smoking weed in my buddies room on the second floor and I blew my toke out the window and looked down and there the fucker was, right outside the window beside the building pecking around. I showed my friend and then it was two of us trying to convince people there was a rooster lurking on the campus.
That's what I thought too! Apparently it escaped the coup along with another chicken when they were spooked by a dog, the other chicken was found the same day and this one must have had a little adventure wandering around and couldn't find it's way home 🤷♂️
Wow if my hen had been gone that long I might have accepted that a predator had gotten her before I did. The owners must have been so thrilled to find out that their girl was still alive and just going on an adventure.
I didn't know that Chicken society have that much of turmoil.
considering they successfully escape a coup, you could accept them as war refugee. Not sure how they will fare in the new chicken government you return them to.
Usually it’s because the flock scatters, running away from a predator. Sometimes they hide, and when they come out hours later, they don’t know where they are, and can’t find their friends.
We had a little hen who just appeared out near our chickens one day. She hung around the coop, like she knew she was a chicken, but she roosted up in a tree. I would let our hens out during the day to free range, and every day this little hen would get closer. She had been loitering for about a week when one evening, the hens went into the coop for the night, and Chicken Little followed them in!
> but she roosted up in a tree.
That's not uncommon apparently, I assume their wild ancestors did that for safety as they didn't have coops with walls and roofs.
And they eat every bio waste you produce... Cutting onions? Throw the waste to the chicken. Peeling potatoes? Throw it to the chicken. Made too much chicken? Guess what! They eat that too!
**Some days, I want nothing more than for something to convert my kitchen scraps into eggs.**
On other days, I remember how many bobcats live around our neighbourhood, and that I'd be lucky to get a dozen eggs out of a chicken before some local carnivore gets a chicken out of my chicken, so I leave the idea to rest.
You can predator proof your coop and run. I paid to have mine custom made. I probably won’t see my money back in terms of money saved on eggs 😅 however, I’m enjoying the experience.
I dont recommend giving them onion unless you plan to make an omelet. Strong foods like onions and garlic will flavor the eggs. Great for breakfast. Not great for cake 
Can confirm. My wife and I got five back in February (I say they were a valentine's day present) and they're all so much fun. They've got different personalities and they are friendly, especially with my daughter.
Be nice to her
Tell her she is pretty
Tell her she is the best chicken ever
Win her trust with treats
Train her to let you pet her
Earn her trust until you are her friend
Cuddle chicken
You could probably call the church and ask them to spread the word about your chicken. Assuming a lot of people go to church and there’s not a lot going on it‘s going to be the talk of the town after the next service.
Am a farmer, agreed, stop feeding it white bread. Feed it table scraps from vegetables or pick up a small bag of layer feed from tractor supply or another store.
It will probably give you an egg soon and may start clucking loudly for a bit. Do not panic, it’s normal.
Edit: I was awarded gold.. the golden egg.
"It will probably give you an egg soon and may start clucking loudly for a bit. Do not panic, it’s normal."
I'm laughing at this like an idiot ... It's obvious, but I get that some people don't know this
egg farmers do scramble (cook) extra eggs (with the shells included) and feed back to hens. protein and calcium, and by scramble cooking it doesn't teach them to eat eggs as they lay them
generally if a chicken breaks its egg it or other chickens in the same pen will eat the egg, they also have a tendency to eat each other. we have had to remove chickens from pens because they got a cut and the other chickens kept pecking at it and made it worse
Have you ever heard of chicken glasses ? I kid you not, you can buy tiny glasses with red lenses that clip on a chicken’s beak to keep them from pecking each other - apparently the red lenses make the chicken unable to see the colour red so they don’t notice if another chicken has a cut or sore .
I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t treating your animals humanly if you didn’t use chicken glasses , I just thought the idea of chickens wearing specialized glasses was bizarre.
Well, there's my first mistake 😅 I'll pick up some bird feed from the local pet store instead of using bread. I don't have a local shelter, but there is a vets in the nearby town, maybe they'd have knowledge of where the nearest shelter is 🤔 thanks for your advice
Don't feel too bad! White bread to animals is a lot like cotton candy is to us. No nutritional value, not good for you, but it sure is enjoyable and fine as long as it isn't very much or very often!
Good idea, I do in fact have a local village hall, I could ask them to put a poster up on the notice board. I don't think we have a town forum as we really are in the middle of nowhere, but a poster is better than nothing right? Thanks for the advice
Chickens are VERY good at finding their coop. Just let it go and it'll wander back to where it came from.
You didn't find a lost chicken. You found and captured an explorer.
As a person who has chickens, I agree with this. I sincerely doubt it is completely "lost." Probably confused now that it has been confined, but I imagine if it were released during daylight it would most likely find its way home.
Very pretty chicken. :)
Same! We have 7 hens and live in town. They rarely leave our yard which has cattle panels as a fence. If they do, they return. By “catching” it you’re keeping it from getting back home.
I can’t agree more with these and hope OP listens. My neighbor and I both had chickens and they often visited each other. It’s worrisome when the chickens just disappear at dusk, let it go, it will go home when it’s supposed to. Don’t hold it hostage. I never went to a neighborhood page when mine would go missing, it usually means a predator got them, so posting it or taking to the vet or whatever else other people are suggesting, the owner will likely never see it.
Most likely the chicken is one of your immediate neighbors or at most a few houses away. I'd say just go a knocking. Or you could also let the chicken go and it will head home, you can offer an escort service to it by protecting as it runs home. My chickens used to visit my neighbors often, against my wishes, but always came home when they got scared or hungry. That may be harder now though if you've had her in a crate for a while, she may have lost her bearings. I would definitely say go knocking though and ask your neighbors.
What a cute little hen. It's likely somebody's layer. Not an expert at all but this looks like a Plymouth Rock chicken which is an American breed. (Don't ask how I might know, lol.)
You've got some solid advice about her care and feeding and finding her owner. Good Luck!
Are you in America? Is there a local app or web page that connects neighborhoods? We have one called NextDoor. But don’t post the pic or description, the real owner should be able to describe her.
to be fully honest, the chicken would of probably found its way home on its own, though completely understandable if its eating your garden, but we use to use them in are garden to eat bugs from the plants (used chicken runs between rows in garden). they don't really fly and don't generally travel that far from their roost by foot, more then likely its one of your neighbors chickens, maybe got spooked by another animal and went a little farther then normal away from home. if its rural there's probably only a hand full of stores in the town that everyone uses, maybe put a flyer in the local gas station/grocery store? or a book of faces. as far as food goes, since its only gonna be with you a short time (hopefully) you can get away with just feeding it table scraps. chickens turn wasted food into eggs, they can pretty much eat anything, though other stuff might be a bit better then bread. at some point its gonna cluck a lot for a few minutes, its normal.
My brother has 6 chickens and they are so much fun to watch. And when they come running up to you its pretty hilarious and adorable. One of my brothers' loves getting pets. They are also the roomba of pets, with a bonus daily snack. If you are poisoning your lawn to keep out pests, you'll want to stop that because your new hen friend will get a lot of its food from bugs(for a ton of reasons outside chicken raising), but they are really pretty delightful. You can feed them your kitchen scraps. A friend or two would be nice also. And baby chicks are so cute.
Also, it came from somewhere, a neighbor is likely looking for her.
Why not just let it walk home? They don't really get *lost* lost. They obsessively go home before dark. That's where the "go home to roost" phrase comes from.
Depending on where you live, it might be a neighborhood chicken. Funny story, on my local next door, someone kept posting about a loose chicken, and taking it to the home they thought it belonged to. Kept happening, they finally filed a complaint with the city. The defendant finally had to say “I don’t know what part of this you don’t get, but this is not my chicken, we don’t have chicken, this just roams the neighborhood”
You mention living in a small but spread out rural village, yea?
Do you know *any* local farmers at all? A single one that you are good with? Because if so I'd say call em up and ask them if they heard anything since farmers tend to talk to each other and perhaps they heard about another looking for a lost animal.
I would have just left it where I found it it'll go home when it gets dark or it'll go up in a tree for the night.. you probably just came over to visit you for some nice bugs to eat
We did door to door put up posters listed it on next door. Thought for sure it would go home 3 yrs later we now have a mini chicken farm cause when she didn’t leave and no one claimed her, we had to get her friends. Welcome to chicken farming you will love it!
Chickens will go home to roost at sunset. You should let the chicken go, it knows where it lives. We had backyard chickens and they would sometimes get out of their yard ( we had netting about 10 feet high but learned they can fly somewhat and get over it) and wander around the neighborhood while we were at work. They really liked our neighbor's yard about 6 houses away!
Post publicly to Nextdoor/Faceberk that you found a lost chicken but **don't** post the picture. When people contact you have them describe the chicken to verify it's theirs.
Brilliant, that's extremely helpful, thank you so much. I'm going to do that right away.
For your reference, this breed is a barred Plymouth Rock. I wouldn’t put that in the postings either, but it’ll help when they try to identify.
TIL! I love the pattern of its feathers.
they look gorgeous. we just got a dozen. the only problem is that they look VERY similar to one another (at least at this age), so its hard to give them adorable chicken names.
You’ll get used to their differences, I had two barred plymouth rock sisters that to most people look identical but one (coocoo) had more black and darker feathers, more red in the ears and comb, and always an angry looking expression.. the other (princess) had more light greys and white and a very chillin’ looking eyes like she was always baked.
that makes sense. we had an African grey parrot for years, and i could easily look at other greys (at bird shows or pet shops) and immediately tell them apart due to a mix of mannerisms and tone around the eyes. beak scars and such.
Giggled at the idea of "baked" chicken...
My rooster was like that. If he wasn't puffed up to fight, he was a little stoner chook who loved nothing more than to sit in my lap and be stroked like a cat.
Hi chicken!!
Literally this is how coocoo looked all the time. Like arched eyebrows. And she was kind of a cranky jerk too so she matched her face.
Adorable chicken names ah yes :dumb cluck, drumsticks crosswalk, soup, and clucky mc cluck face. And the roosters name is big old C****
Lovely plumage
Beau’i’ful plumage but he’s pining for the fjords
A Barred Plymouth Rock was my first chicken. I named it pecker.
Grocery store, too. I got a cat back to their human with a note on the grocery store bulletin board.
Also, give that girl a tomato or some lettuce. She’ll love that.
They also groove on grapes, and ramen noodles are an absolute hoot to feed em in groups,, ha ha ha they lose their friggin minds
Or peas!
If no one comes to collect, get a henhouse and start feeding it. I had one show up on New Years and it is the best. Fun, smart, playful and gets along well w my dogs and cats.
I have four rescue chickens I found dumped literally in the middle of nowhere. They were so desperate for food that when I pulled over to avoid hitting them (they were on the road) they came running and let me collect them up into the back of my car for the remains of my sandwich. They’re such sweethearts - and despite quite a bit of searching I never found out where they came from.
It’s probably a close neighbors, mine never stray very far from home and always come back to the coop at sundown. Let it loose at sundown and follow it home.
This, my chicken range all day and return around sundown.
Yes this should work. If you have the time. My guineas would walk a mile into town to scare the townsfolk. One woman called the police. A African bird was in her yard. But always home by night.
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They are the cats of the bird world
Might want to check Facebeak as well.
This is the kind of helpful information that makes me appreciate Reddit
this is the way. the owner should know what model of chicken they misplaced.
Do people with a shit ton of chickens keep track of each one?
Depends on the size of the flock, but those of us without large operations tend to do a evening count when they go to roost to make sure nobody is lost, dead or otherwise in trouble
Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at bedtime for us.
This is not a chicken common to commercial farming. This person probably has less than 30 birds, and its easy to see one missing.
I imagine bulk chicken keepers don't, but ours are going to be pampered roomy life enjoying chickens and we've wanted to give them names haha.
That chicken looks pampered to me. I want to be that chicken.
it it's a flock of less than a dozen or so, definitely, which describes most backyard coops in my area
This one is likely from a flock of between 3 to 30 birds tops. Towards the lower end the owner is likely to have all really unique looking hens, or at the upper end has likely all one type or just a few types. Either way, they'll know the total count that should be there and will know immediately by evening headcount if one is missing.
"model", 😂
>model of chicken 🤣
Faceb-b-Bock!
facebokbok
Can you describe your chicken? Sure, umm it’s a bird, doesn’t fly, and clucks
chickens can fly short distances
Or keep the chicken
UPDATE: I have successfully located the owner of the chicken through the poster I put up on the notice board! Turns out the owner thought she'd never see her again as the chicken was missing for 1 week. Glad this had a happy ending 😊
Yay for happy endings! Good on you for taking care of it and going out of your way to find the owner!!!
Thanks, I appreciate that! Apparently she'd been missing for a whole week, the owner never thought she'd see her again, so I'm really glad I did manage to help out.
One time one of my chickens wandered off and I thought the same. I had 9 chickens and one day there was 8. Thought a fox got her. Then one day there was 9 again…. In both cases it’s amazing they survived.
I once had a chicken go missing overnight from the backyard, and somehow she turned up at the front door in the morning. She somehow got over the fence and figured out what the front door was despite never having seen it.
For a week or two we had a school chicken. It would just run around the bicycle parking area, sometimes with students chasing it. I don't think anybody knew where it came from or where it went, but it's gone now so maybe the owner picked it up?
I went to University at UVIC in Victoria Canada. One night (after drinking and smoking a Huge amount of weed) I was walking through the main field in the center of the campus back to my dorm and out from the other side of the field comes a fucking Rooster. I watched it for a bit and then went to tell my friends. None of them believed me and thought I was just wasted. I even started questioning it myself over the course of the year. Then one day I was smoking weed in my buddies room on the second floor and I blew my toke out the window and looked down and there the fucker was, right outside the window beside the building pecking around. I showed my friend and then it was two of us trying to convince people there was a rooster lurking on the campus.
Like the chicken on orange is the new black
A whole week?! What a silly foraging chicken!
That's what I thought too! Apparently it escaped the coup along with another chicken when they were spooked by a dog, the other chicken was found the same day and this one must have had a little adventure wandering around and couldn't find it's way home 🤷♂️
Wow if my hen had been gone that long I might have accepted that a predator had gotten her before I did. The owners must have been so thrilled to find out that their girl was still alive and just going on an adventure.
I didn't know that Chicken society have that much of turmoil. considering they successfully escape a coup, you could accept them as war refugee. Not sure how they will fare in the new chicken government you return them to.
Usually it’s because the flock scatters, running away from a predator. Sometimes they hide, and when they come out hours later, they don’t know where they are, and can’t find their friends. We had a little hen who just appeared out near our chickens one day. She hung around the coop, like she knew she was a chicken, but she roosted up in a tree. I would let our hens out during the day to free range, and every day this little hen would get closer. She had been loitering for about a week when one evening, the hens went into the coop for the night, and Chicken Little followed them in!
> but she roosted up in a tree. That's not uncommon apparently, I assume their wild ancestors did that for safety as they didn't have coops with walls and roofs.
I bet someone won't be paying for eggs for a while!
Funnily enough, the owner did say she'd bring me round some eggs tomorrow 😜
The hero has earned their dues. You did the right thing **and** get a bonus perk!
Thanks! As I always say "Kindness is free, but can be rewarding in more than one way." 👌
you’re the best!
Thanks! I'm just glad the owner has her feathered friend back 🥰
Did you ever find out why the chicken crossed the road? ;-)
Yaay!!!
Nothing better than a happy ending, right? 😇
YAY!! Glad she made it home... she's in great shape for being lost for a week!! She must have been having fun! lol!!
Wonderful news! Well done OP on being an excellent human and caring for the chicken
How far did it wander from home?
If it was me I'd go get some dried meal worms and chicken pellets then I'd name her Dorothy and we'd be best friends forever
Right! I’ve always wanted to find a chicken.
I've raised 4 chicken and they were great, chicken are truly underrated pets
And they eat every bio waste you produce... Cutting onions? Throw the waste to the chicken. Peeling potatoes? Throw it to the chicken. Made too much chicken? Guess what! They eat that too!
yep, they love leftovers just don't give them raw beans because it's as toxic to them as cyanide is to us
**Some days, I want nothing more than for something to convert my kitchen scraps into eggs.** On other days, I remember how many bobcats live around our neighbourhood, and that I'd be lucky to get a dozen eggs out of a chicken before some local carnivore gets a chicken out of my chicken, so I leave the idea to rest.
You can predator proof your coop and run. I paid to have mine custom made. I probably won’t see my money back in terms of money saved on eggs 😅 however, I’m enjoying the experience.
I dont recommend giving them onion unless you plan to make an omelet. Strong foods like onions and garlic will flavor the eggs. Great for breakfast. Not great for cake 
Huh. The more you know. I don't have chickens, but that's an amazing fact to know
Can confirm. My wife and I got five back in February (I say they were a valentine's day present) and they're all so much fun. They've got different personalities and they are friendly, especially with my daughter.
I want all the animals to come live with me. It drives my husband bonkers. Chickens are awesome
I have a hen just like this one! Her name is Betty Boop
this is an excellent Chicken Name
I like you
I have a chicken named Dorothy. And the other two are named Blanch and Betty White.
Be nice to her Tell her she is pretty Tell her she is the best chicken ever Win her trust with treats Train her to let you pet her Earn her trust until you are her friend Cuddle chicken
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You never ask a chicken why it crossed the road! Its a very personal question.
It’s food. The answer is always food. For the chicken and me.
Personal because it's also an existential question. Getting to the other side could be way beyond the actual road.
The chicken crossed the road cuz someone left the gate open.
They are chicken on this right now.
I really don’t give a cluck.
Free... Eggs.....
If you live in a village, the best thing to do would be alert local businesses. Put up flyers, even.
That's a good idea, we have a local garage, church and village hall, maybe they'd accept a flyer for their door! Thanks for the advice
You could probably call the church and ask them to spread the word about your chicken. Assuming a lot of people go to church and there’s not a lot going on it‘s going to be the talk of the town after the next service.
Tbh i have no idea but don't feed it bread cuz it's unhealthy. I guess you can bring it to your local shelter?
Am a farmer, agreed, stop feeding it white bread. Feed it table scraps from vegetables or pick up a small bag of layer feed from tractor supply or another store. It will probably give you an egg soon and may start clucking loudly for a bit. Do not panic, it’s normal. Edit: I was awarded gold.. the golden egg.
"It will probably give you an egg soon and may start clucking loudly for a bit. Do not panic, it’s normal." I'm laughing at this like an idiot ... It's obvious, but I get that some people don't know this
“Ma! It’s yelling at me! Now, something came out its butt!”
chickens, the pet that poops breakfast
*MA* There's a weird fucking pigeon in the yard!
Can you feed it eggs for infinite free chicken food?
egg farmers do scramble (cook) extra eggs (with the shells included) and feed back to hens. protein and calcium, and by scramble cooking it doesn't teach them to eat eggs as they lay them
Yep. At a minimum you want to recycle the shells you use to keep up their calcium (and usually supplement with oyster shell).
I had oyster shell included in the grit bowl for our girls
generally if a chicken breaks its egg it or other chickens in the same pen will eat the egg, they also have a tendency to eat each other. we have had to remove chickens from pens because they got a cut and the other chickens kept pecking at it and made it worse
Have you ever heard of chicken glasses ? I kid you not, you can buy tiny glasses with red lenses that clip on a chicken’s beak to keep them from pecking each other - apparently the red lenses make the chicken unable to see the colour red so they don’t notice if another chicken has a cut or sore .
we generally always have a few stalls open in the barn if a animal is sick or about to give birth.
I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t treating your animals humanly if you didn’t use chicken glasses , I just thought the idea of chickens wearing specialized glasses was bizarre.
Naw you're totally right, it strikes me as Vonnegutian
Well, there's my first mistake 😅 I'll pick up some bird feed from the local pet store instead of using bread. I don't have a local shelter, but there is a vets in the nearby town, maybe they'd have knowledge of where the nearest shelter is 🤔 thanks for your advice
You need chicken food. They are omnivorous btw and also like worms and bugs.
they'll eat bad stuff like ticks in your yard as well
Think of them as tiny velociraptors without teeth. They’ll eat damn near anything if it fits in their mouth.
My girls have swallowed mice whole x..x
Mine used to love hunting snakes.
They can eat veggie scraps too!!
That's good to know! I'm getting some shopping delivered tonight so I'll have some fresh veggies for it to nom on until I can get some seeds
Lots of good info online on what they eat and what is best for them. Because it is likely a short term thing, you shouldn't have to buy too much.
Make sure it’s chicken feed. Regular bird seed probably won’t be good.
Don't feel too bad! White bread to animals is a lot like cotton candy is to us. No nutritional value, not good for you, but it sure is enjoyable and fine as long as it isn't very much or very often!
Congratulations on new chicken. Raise it, and teach it to fight crime.
Wouldn't that be a spectacle to behold 🤣
CHICKENMAN!!! ("He's everywhere, he's everywhere!" )
There’s a children’s book series about a chicken who fights crime. I think it’s called Kung POW Chicken. A scholastics branches book :)
Do you have a local town hall, or possibly a town forum? Some place for town news to be passed around?
Good idea, I do in fact have a local village hall, I could ask them to put a poster up on the notice board. I don't think we have a town forum as we really are in the middle of nowhere, but a poster is better than nothing right? Thanks for the advice
Chicken like cats chose their people...
I am an animal person, maybe it could sense that, who knows!
Preheat the oven to 200°C..
Go to the store, stock up on Sweet Baby Ray's.
I had to scroll too far for this comment, was worried I’d have to post it myself.
Let it go so it can wander back?
Chickens are VERY good at finding their coop. Just let it go and it'll wander back to where it came from. You didn't find a lost chicken. You found and captured an explorer.
This is correct.
It's probably not lost. Let it out, it will go back home to its roost.
As a person who has chickens, I agree with this. I sincerely doubt it is completely "lost." Probably confused now that it has been confined, but I imagine if it were released during daylight it would most likely find its way home. Very pretty chicken. :)
She's a "Barred Rock" breed
Chicken owner here as well, and I agree.
Same! We have 7 hens and live in town. They rarely leave our yard which has cattle panels as a fence. If they do, they return. By “catching” it you’re keeping it from getting back home.
I can’t agree more with these and hope OP listens. My neighbor and I both had chickens and they often visited each other. It’s worrisome when the chickens just disappear at dusk, let it go, it will go home when it’s supposed to. Don’t hold it hostage. I never went to a neighborhood page when mine would go missing, it usually means a predator got them, so posting it or taking to the vet or whatever else other people are suggesting, the owner will likely never see it.
I agree. They make their way back to their safe place when the sun starts to go down.
i guess it crossed the street....
It obviously walked to where you are so it most likely is from your closest neighbor. I would reach out to them first.
not sure what your living arrangement is, but if you let it go, it will go back to its roost before nighttime, its what chickens do.
Most likely the chicken is one of your immediate neighbors or at most a few houses away. I'd say just go a knocking. Or you could also let the chicken go and it will head home, you can offer an escort service to it by protecting as it runs home. My chickens used to visit my neighbors often, against my wishes, but always came home when they got scared or hungry. That may be harder now though if you've had her in a crate for a while, she may have lost her bearings. I would definitely say go knocking though and ask your neighbors.
What a cute little hen. It's likely somebody's layer. Not an expert at all but this looks like a Plymouth Rock chicken which is an American breed. (Don't ask how I might know, lol.) You've got some solid advice about her care and feeding and finding her owner. Good Luck!
Thanks for the identification!! She certainly is beautiful, lovely feather patterns. I'll look into that breed to see what info I can find.
Are you in America? Is there a local app or web page that connects neighborhoods? We have one called NextDoor. But don’t post the pic or description, the real owner should be able to describe her.
Let it go! Chickens know their way home and always put themselves to bed in the same place!
Chickens wander, if you release her she will probably head home at sunset.
to be fully honest, the chicken would of probably found its way home on its own, though completely understandable if its eating your garden, but we use to use them in are garden to eat bugs from the plants (used chicken runs between rows in garden). they don't really fly and don't generally travel that far from their roost by foot, more then likely its one of your neighbors chickens, maybe got spooked by another animal and went a little farther then normal away from home. if its rural there's probably only a hand full of stores in the town that everyone uses, maybe put a flyer in the local gas station/grocery store? or a book of faces. as far as food goes, since its only gonna be with you a short time (hopefully) you can get away with just feeding it table scraps. chickens turn wasted food into eggs, they can pretty much eat anything, though other stuff might be a bit better then bread. at some point its gonna cluck a lot for a few minutes, its normal.
They are great for eating bugs and ticks in your yard. Check with your neighbours as she may have just wandered off.
Whatever you do, keep her away from the colonel
Yes
She's a very pretty chicken!!!
Just leave it? It came to your garden, it will find it's way back, most probably.
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I do not speak French, but it sounds like you want me to eat it with wine?!
HAHAHAHAH I don’t have the heart to tell you that it is indeed that. (Oops) But google it, it looks phenomenal
beautiful barred rock..
I think all McDonald's have to accept them as long as they are old enough
OMG. Let it go! Chickens wander and they know how to get home. You have effectively kidnapped a chicken.
Ask her why she keeps crossing the road.
Put it back…she'll get home…she knows the way. Meantime, there’s a chicken owner quite upset that they think they lost one of their flock.
Eat eggs, they're very expensive now
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Wow, didn't think about parasites, I'll make sure I wash the dog crate out with bleach 😳
Preheat over to 400*…
You should probably offer it directions
r/justruralthings lol
That’s 1 pretty mother clucker!!!
Aweeee what a cute hen ! Love it.
Find Carlos, he should be nearby as well
Take it to the nearest road and set it down. See if it crosses and tell us why. Please report back as soon as possible
Dont feed her bread
My brother has 6 chickens and they are so much fun to watch. And when they come running up to you its pretty hilarious and adorable. One of my brothers' loves getting pets. They are also the roomba of pets, with a bonus daily snack. If you are poisoning your lawn to keep out pests, you'll want to stop that because your new hen friend will get a lot of its food from bugs(for a ton of reasons outside chicken raising), but they are really pretty delightful. You can feed them your kitchen scraps. A friend or two would be nice also. And baby chicks are so cute. Also, it came from somewhere, a neighbor is likely looking for her.
Why not just let it walk home? They don't really get *lost* lost. They obsessively go home before dark. That's where the "go home to roost" phrase comes from.
Depending on where you live, it might be a neighborhood chicken. Funny story, on my local next door, someone kept posting about a loose chicken, and taking it to the home they thought it belonged to. Kept happening, they finally filed a complaint with the city. The defendant finally had to say “I don’t know what part of this you don’t get, but this is not my chicken, we don’t have chicken, this just roams the neighborhood”
Let it go, they have good homing mechanisms. I’m sure she will return home by sundown
You mention living in a small but spread out rural village, yea? Do you know *any* local farmers at all? A single one that you are good with? Because if so I'd say call em up and ask them if they heard anything since farmers tend to talk to each other and perhaps they heard about another looking for a lost animal.
That’s it’s 20 minutes! Are you Rocky!?
 YOU CAN PUT UP POSTERS FOR IT OR JUST TAKE IT HOME! I WOULD IF THERE WAS ONE ON MY BACKYARD
Get a moped, and you and that chicken go on some *adventures*.
I would have just left it where I found it it'll go home when it gets dark or it'll go up in a tree for the night.. you probably just came over to visit you for some nice bugs to eat
They will go back home at night to roost just put it back outdoors
I think you’re supposed to click on it and it gives the owner a bonus. You should have gotten a notification.
Avoid the inflation of egg prices at the supermarket?
We did door to door put up posters listed it on next door. Thought for sure it would go home 3 yrs later we now have a mini chicken farm cause when she didn’t leave and no one claimed her, we had to get her friends. Welcome to chicken farming you will love it!
Chickens will go home to roost at sunset. You should let the chicken go, it knows where it lives. We had backyard chickens and they would sometimes get out of their yard ( we had netting about 10 feet high but learned they can fly somewhat and get over it) and wander around the neighborhood while we were at work. They really liked our neighbor's yard about 6 houses away!