[Mammyshaz]

Came home tonight to find our high gate out to the field was wide open and the run mesh to little Bantam, Darcy-Cola, was torn away from the wood. Little Darcy-Cola was gone  My two boys are devastated!

Two kids were seen at 4pm  chasing a black hen down the street so it looks like school kids have her. I really hope they mean her no harm. She had a tough start from an auction in November. Her two sisters died and she was nursed to full health and finally started laying 2 weeks ago.  I don't want to think about what could happen to her.

So, please, if anybody is reading this and lives around Washington/Sunderland/Durham area and is offered a black Wyandotte bantam with a dint in one leg  please let me know. ( better inform the undertakers too  )

[Rosemary]

Little barstewards 

[little blue]

poor D-C, she must be so scared, hope you find her safe

have asked my Sacriston friend to tell his family ... they already know what we're like so it shouldn't seem like an odd request! 

[HesterF]

  FB it too - lots of missing dogs go round so maybe it'll work for hens too. If it was kids, why did they tear the mesh though? Could they not just have opened the door? just wondering whether a dog or fox tore the mesh so she got out and the kids were trying to catch her?

H

[Mammyshaz]

Thanks Little Blue. We scanned the surrounding gardens, fields and woods for two hours yesterday in the hope she had escaped their grip.

Hester, in a way I wish it was a fox, then I'd know she's gone quickly. Unfortunately they cannot unlock gate bolts. The coop and run were supposed to be temporary for newcomers isolation time. Unfortunately she was on her own after the other two died so I couldn't put her in with big birds, who are padlocked, until we acquired more bantams.
The run has no door we access it only when need to through removing two screws to a panel. She is fed/watered and handled through the main coop door. The coop and run are very heavy and require two people to move it around.
 The kids pulled enough mesh from the under run of the coop just big enough to get a baton in ( which was  where they left it  )and I presume pull her out of the mesh they pulled at the other side. Not big enough for a cat let alone a fox.

No sign this morning so I'm putting word out locally. I know she is only a hen but she is missed and the shear anger of someone taking things that doesn't belong to them is making me determined to try and find the
scumbags  and hopefully get her back.


If they were sensible they could have pulled off the tarpaulin cover of the run and jumped in as it has no mesh.

[HelenVF]

I am so sorry   What a horrible thing to do.  I really hope you get her back, or at least find out what happened to her.

Helen

[HesterF]

Don't know how big a place you live in but is there an obvious local school the kids might be at? I'd be tempted to contact them as well and ask for help. The kids will talk and tell other kids so by asking around (or asking for information in assembly), that might get you somewhere (as well as making the kids feel awful 'much loved family pet', 'how would yo feel if it was your pet?'). I'd have a word with the head (or heads if there are several schools) and see what they can do. If you've got a rough description of the kids, that would help too,

H

[happygolucky]

Fingers crossed she got into bushes or similar and comes home...so sad...horrid thing to happen!! Hope shes home soon!

[plumseverywhere]

I think I'd be inclined to do what Hester suggested - speak to schools, put a few posters up maybe? Fingers crossed that they were actually nice kids that saw her loose and were trying to round her up for you? you never know xx

[Lesley Silvester]

Hope she's ok and you get her back.