The Funny Farm: Chickens Lost & Found

I’ve been fortunate, in that, I have never lost a chicken. I have, however, adopted birds that have been dumped and found in the woods. That’s how I got my first rooster, a Japanese bantam, who was found at the side of the road.

What follows are a couple of tales of finding ‘extra’ chickens – a situation that many of us would be happy to deal with.

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U.S. Forest Service – Shasta-Trinity National Forest

This week Pearl, a chicken from Salyer, hitched a ride to Weaverville in her parents’ vehicle. She disembarked from the vehicle and found some good grub at the Weaverville Ranger Station. Pearl spent the day eating aquatic insects in the gulch and blackberries off the bushes. She hung around overnight as Natural Resource Specialist Marinda Medin located Pearl’s parents. 

A plan was hatched to lure her into a crate with scratch feed to return Pearl to her parents. Come morning, she did not want the scratch, she thought the bugs and berries tasted much better. With little success in getting Pearl into the crate the firefighters thought they could do better. They tried to catch Pearl, but she didn’t think hanging out in a fire engine was the right place for her. 

She continued to spend her day foraging at the Ranger Station in the creek and the grass. Yesterday Pearl’s parents came to collect her and they brought one of her chicken friends from home. Pearl is now home with her chicken friends and telling them about her big day at the Weaverville Ranger Station.

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Kyla Anne

We had a rooster show up in our yard a few months ago. He belonged to the neighbours down the road. They knew he was here this whole time and chose not to come get him. He free ranges in our yard, so he is free to come and go as he pleases, except he doesn’t want to leave the yard. The neighbours are packing up to move and apparently now they want him back. We don’t want to let him go now because he’s a sweet boy and and he’s been here for months.  We’ve been feeding him and he’s made our home his home. He even stayed when hurricanes Helene and Milton came through. The storm took out his roosting branch, so he found another spot in our yard to roost. The lady wants us to catch him and bring him to her, but I’m not willing to do that. I’m not fixin’ to get into an altercation over a chicken, but how would y’all handle this??”

UPDATE:  The woman sent her husband down here to retrieve the rooster but he said keep him. I let him know that he will be fed and cared for.

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Kathryn Arenhart

A week ago, my husband had the outbuilding open to grab more feed bags and add them to the chicken bin. That night he closed the door up and that was that. We had four chickens go missing recently and have also had a problem with coyotes. My husband just opened up the outbuilding door to store more feed bags and what do you know? Those four chickens were in there just hanging out. How did they survive without water? Your guess is as good as mine. They had food because apparently one of them tried to get on the containers we have in there of hermetically sealed wheat and one fell over and busted open. 

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Gabi Quinlan

What are the chances my 14 week old rooster will be waiting for me in the morning after sleeping outside all night? I know they’ve lived hundreds of years outside before we started putting them in coops, but I’m a new – and now pretty sad – chicken owner right now. My chickens free range all day and go in their coop at night. I went out around 8:15 tonight and they were slowly starting to put themselves to bed. My rooster, Kevin, was walking around when I came out. Then I waited till 8:30, which is the time I close the door every night and Kevin was nowhere to be found. No trail of feathers. No blood. Nothing. The other fourteen girls were all in the coop on their bars, unharmed. What are my chances he shows up tomorrow morning? I live in Missouri and I have lots of outdoor creatures around me. I knew the risks when I chose to free range during the day, but still I’d be really sad if he’s gone, he’s been such a good boy so far.

Update: We have a huge tall grassy area that my flock love to explore and hide in. I never have the courage to go in there because I’m a bit of a sissy thinking of what else is there. I finally got the courage to look for my boy this morning. Halfway into the patch, I heard him crow. When I tell you I have never run so fast I mean it. I turned the corner and there he was, standing tall in the grass by the coop wondering why he was locked out from his girls. This would’ve been our first loss and I was not ready for it to be him.  I forced some cuddles as soon as I got my hands on him, but he didn’t seem to mind as much today so happy he’s still here.

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I can’t make this shit up. I was driving home when I saw this hen in the cemetery, with no houses nearby. So yes, I caught a black chicken in a cemetery on Halloween. – Katie Toney

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Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and photos. Featured photo: Jessica Jones