It's like having a teenage girl

This is my favorite bird...

We eat the Dronet Secret Family Recipe of Sweet Potatoes Too!!!

Buffy is a Buff Orpington.  She was one of the purebred birds we bought from the fair.  She was the first girl to eat out of my hand and she's always been the first one to run over to me when she sees me.

The birds always stick together - either as one big group or split into 2 or 3 groups, but I've never caught one alone.

Until last weekend.  Buffy was 50 feet away from me and then suddenly she was gone.  Because of the fox issues, I was scared.  I searched for 20 minutes and couldn't find any sign of her.  I finally came inside and tried looking up information online.  I kept thinking that something must have snatched her up, but why didn't it or she make any noise???

I told the kids and Jennifer what happen and we went back outside to search for her.  About twenty minutes into this search Johnathon yelled that he saw her coming out of the trees from the direction of our one neighbor's place.  Sure enough she came skipping out of the trees, alone, and unharmed.

I gave her a stern talk (no really I did) and wanted to just grab her and hug her, but birds don't let you do that.

Today I went out to give the birds some treats and realized that I hadn't seen her.  I counted the birds and there were a couple missing so I thought they must be in the coop laying eggs or around the corner in the dirt.  Awhile later I still didn't see them all so I went looking and found two, but was still missing Buff.

This time I just headed straight through the trees to the neighbor's place calling her.  Sure enough I was almost to the opening of the trees at his yard and she was coming towards me.

There is about 400 feet from his house to mine - so about 200-300 feet of trees and brush - it's not thick, especially with all the leaves being off trees and bushes.

I have no idea what she is doing.  I am wondering if she's going over there to lay eggs, but I'm not sure how or why she found a spot over there.  All I keep thinking is "it's like she sneaking off to see her secret boyfriend, like a teenager!" and I get upset with her :)

I looked around, but only for a second because I didn't want the neighbor to come out with a shot gun or just think I was crazy.   I figured I'd take some fresh eggs over tomorrow and ask if I could look around (after explaining why).