Originally 4 Rhode Island Reds...then there were 3

     Bad news, I'm down one Hen, as of Monday December 26th 2011.  I have always let my girls have the run of the property by day but the chicken poop is getting way out of hand. Landmines are everywhere. I decided to try and haul them over to the enclosed garden, which is definitely further than 100 ft from the coop and way too far for my girls to get back without a Rooster to guard and drive them. So by day I would let them clean up whats left of our summer garden. Monday after Christmas i decided to implement this new strategy.
      Since we were sitting down for another Christmas family dinner at dusk, I decided to get the girls back in the coop before dinner.  It was getting dark quickly and I thought I got all of them.  Apparently one of my Mohawk Rhode Island Reds was lagging behind and didn't get in the pen.  I didn't discover this until after dinner when i went to deliver an after dinner snack and only counted 9 instead of 10.  To my dismay one of my Reds was missing. After hours of searching in the dark to no avail, she was gone for good. I'm sure she became dinner to something that evening, as my girls have no wild and instinctive protective behavior left in them.  I baby them to death, literally. So sad.