Little ChiefSubmitted by: Steve2012-02-11 Last Sunday I was out in the backyard and noticed that one of the girls was missing. Our sweet little Chief was nowhere to be seen. I searched the yard; looking in all of their favorite hiding places and then everywhere else. After not being able to locate her in the yard I told Jenn and we both starting searching. We searched Devil's Ditch behind our house, neighboring fields, and the neighborhood. There we no signs of predators or an attack. There were also no signs of tracks in the snow or mud at possible exit points.
Of all the chickens Chief is the one that could potentially fly over the fence. At this point we were concerned that she had gotten scared by something and flew to escape. She may have been lost or chased down by whatever scared her.
After 2 hours of searching (Now we now what Lexie went through), there was nowhere else to look. We decided to go inside for a little while and then look again at sunset when they were getting ready to go to bed.
At sunset I went back outside and there was still no sign of her. I decided to set up the step ladder so that I could get a birds eye view over the fence. The other girls had followed me so I went to get a little scratch to distract them. When I came out from behind the coop with the scratch little Chief was charging right at me. We didn't know where she was but she had found her way home.
Last night (Friday) we stayed in Salt Lake to have dinner with some friends. Since it was late when we got home I just closed the door to their run and made a quick peek inside the coop. I tried not to disturb them since they were already sleeping. Everything seemed fine.
This morning (Saturday) I got up and went out to make sure they had ample water. I opened the door and only counted 4 chickens! In my effort to not disturb them I had not counted them the night before, and little Chief was not there.
I waited until sunrise to start looking for her. Jenn had noticed that when she got home earlier in the week that Chief had coming running around the corner of the house when she went outside to give them a treat. Thinking of this she checked the side of the house. Last spring we had made a frame out of fence boards and covered it with blankets to try and keep the blossoms on our trees from freezing. By this point it had fallen apart, but still had a little cave that the girls liked to hang out in (part of the reason it was still there). We had both searched this before (numerous times)to no avail. This time Jenn lifted it up and found little Chief nestled in a little pocket under the blanket and next to the window well.
We were of course very happy to find her (again). Then we looked a little closer to find her sitting on a some eggs. When we were finally able to remove them there were 16 eggs in her clutch. Evidently she has working on this for quite some time. It was very sad to take her eggs from her and expose her nest, but we can't having her sleeping outside to protect eggs that are never going to hatch. She is currently frantically searching the yard for her eggs. Hopefully that little tiny brain of hers will forget quickly. We are very happy that she is safe, and she has finally completed her name. She is now known as Chief Hide-N-Seek. | 
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