My rooster went missing for three days and then showed up with a hen from down the street

Last Tuesday I let my birds out for their usual free range time and noticed my rooster, Colonel Cluck, was gone by lunch. Searched the whole property, walked the woods behind my house in rural Ohio, nothing. Figured a fox got him. Then on Friday morning I hear crowing from the neighbor's yard a quarter mile away. He had somehow found their coop and was hanging out with one of their hens like he owned the place. The neighbor was not thrilled when I showed up to get him. Has anyone else had a chicken just decide to go on a field trip and come back with a friend?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie_allen1mo ago

A quarter mile? That's like five football fields away. Ive had chickens wander into my garden but never heard of one making a road trip like that. And he dragged a whole other hen back with him like some kind of feathered kidnapper. Your neighbor probably thinks you're running some kind of chicken cartel now.

jade7381mo ago

@charlie_allen that chicken cartel line got me. My old rooster once walked almost half a mile to a neighbor's place and came back with two buff orpingtons like he was bringing home takeout. The neighbor wasn't mad though, she was just relieved someone finally took those hens off her hands since they kept getting out anyway.

terrywilson1mo ago

Read somewhere that chickens have a homing instinct kind of like pigeons, but it's more about memorizing landmarks than some built-in compass. Roosters especially will wander off to check out other flocks and sometimes bring back a hen if they think the new digs are better than what they left. Your Colonel Cluck sounds like he just upgraded his social life without asking permission first.