Lost a hen on first evening.

[Lilliput]

We got our chickens today. I decided that I wanted to put them to bed before settling down to watch a movie. We hadn't clipped their wings yet and one managed to get into next doors garden and after a wild 'goose' chase there is no sign of her. What do you reckon our chances are of seeing her again are? The kids will be upset in the morning.

Check in any trees or bushes - she will be roosting.

We have spent ages looking, I'm hoping someone will spot her tomorrow.

When you first get them, you are meant to keep them shut in - enclosed in the chicken run etc for at least a few days, so that they become habitually accustomed to roosting in their new home.

Hope she turns up for you

I hope you are able to find her Lilliput but I'm sure she won't have strayed too far away. Perhaps she might come in the morning when the others are being fed.

We were trying to get her in the house but she got over the fence and then the whole thing turned into a farce. The other two have now had their wings clipped.

Our wise chicken whisperer friend reckons the sound of the other two hens will lure her back. I'm not so sure as she had only been in the run 3 hours when she escaped. She won't know where home is yet.

Complete sympathy - we had this with a jungle fowl who took off on day one but never strayed too far away. Six years later she comes close enough for feed but is a wily one to try and catch. There can be something very unsettling when you have beaks and claws very close to your eyes.

Not likely to find her at night, as Gentle says she will be roosting on a tree branch or hiding in a bush or something - but there is every possibility you will spot her tomorrow and may be able to lure her back, perhaps with a trail of enticing food.

We also 'lost' our chickens one night only to find them roosting on top of the barbecue silently - you need to look up 'high' - as high as 5 feet or so.

Oh and make a fuss at feed time - lots of 'choop choop noises.

Thanks for the encouragment, I'll keep you posted and will try not to worry about her tonight.

Well, she has not made her way back to our garden and dh is being a pain and refuses to look for her. It's a real labyrinth of gardens round here so unless someone finds and catches her I think that's it.

Might be worth knocking on some doors nearby to see if anyone has seen her. We had the same thing with a little bantam cockerel and he turned up the next day in the garden of a house 4 doors down. Happily the bloke who lives there works for the RSPB so knows about catching birds and guessed it was ours!

Dh knocked on a few doors this afternoon. It has been torrential rain pretty much all day so she has probably kept herself pretty hidden. He also went to a guy who has lots of ducks and chickens down the road incase someone finds her and thinks it's his. We'll see.

A neighbour a couple of gardens away said he saw her. We quickly went over there and she was sunning herself. She saw us and legged it into a huge beech hedge. She was so bloody fast we couldn't find her. We searched for about an hour and worked out where she had been by scratch marks etc. My 'chicken' friend thinks she may well just turn up in our garden agoin if we're lucky. I have left atrail of food from a gap under the fence where she got out.

She sounds a fiesty little devil....expect to see her in her own time, not yours.

Sounds a character!

Goods luck