You could try a livetrap of an appropriate size, baited with something she loves.

Best advice is to have a secure coop and run built and waiting, then lie in wait again at night with the net. You can also try to woo her with goodies--mealworms, raisens, grapes, fresh corn cut off the cob--and either set a live trap (you can sometimes rent one) or lure her into an enclosed area such as your kitchen or the barn. This may take days of you earning her trust first, though. Chickens are quite smart. Once you've got her, it's worth your while to tame her down--cuddle and pet her, get her used to being picked up and handled. Have a food reward ready in your pocket for when she's a good girl. :)

Good luck!

Velvet

just for my edifaction >whats a chicken tractor? if a chicken turns wild about the only way to catch it is a big trap with goodies....and then retame it...if you have the patience?

mom always used a stiff wire with a hook on the end, that you could reach out and snare a chicken's leg-always worked for her--never hurt a chicken. mmm hatchery sells one in their catalog, i'm thinking of making one.--just a idea?

A chicken tractor is basically a portable pen that has an open bottom so the chickens can eat and scratch right on the ground while they are in there. You move the tractor from place to place on your property to the chickens can dig up each new spot--a chicken tractor! :)

Velvet

Bramble,
If you have a roll of chicken wire....
We always unrolled a very large piece, stood it up and have one person on each end of it (probably about 20 feet long)
Have someone else chase (slowly) the hen and she will try to go between the two people.
When she does, have the two holding the wire make a wide circle and come together to form a very large round pen.
then keep walking past each other, making it smaller and small until you can just reach in and pick her up.
It's never failed us. and only takes a few minutes.

ö¿ö
~

Tom

Wow, Tom! A great idea. I'll tell my husband right away. My chickens outsmart me all the time. I'd like it to be the other way around from now on.

The main thins is to tame them. Our hens are so tame that when ever you go into the coop they will fly up on your shoulder like a parrott and will ballance themselves there as long as you let them. My 9 year old son has taught one to balance on his palm and we pick them up and pet them everytime we go into the coop, while we are doing this we are checking wings /legs and bottoms and checking for mites and parasites ect.....we also give them all kinds of goodies from corn on the cob to weeds pulled up from the garden/they love cucmbers/tomatoes/swiss chard/pumpkin and their very favorite is a Japanese Beetle soup that hubby gives them after a sucsessfull hour of grabing Japanese Beetles off the fruit trees and plants in the garden. He drowns the beetles in a 2 liter bottle filled with water then just pours the drowned beetles into a aluminum pie pan and they go nuts.........lots of luck...with Polly....Josette

I used the hook system that ceresone was talking about. Made my own by getting a stiff piece of pipe and running some heavy wire through it and form a hook on the end. I'd guess the hook is 6" long and about 3" wide at the open end and shaped more like a V than a U. I wait 'til they settle down for the night in some low tree and then go back at night with the hook and a flashlight. I don't like yanking on thier legs much, as the neck is stronger. Works for me! First time, they go to the hen house. Second time they go in the pot. Haven't lost one yet.
Try it. A live trap works too, but costs a lot. Good luck!

You need to have the chickens associate you with food and security.
They see you coming, they think: maybe there's food! That, and: they see you coming and they aren't deathly afraid of getting hurt.

Hand feed your chickens. That will make them excited to see you.

Generally, chickens have a favorite place to sleep, so if nothing else, the chicken will return to roost at night.

We have a similar problem when we let our birds out from their pen to free range. Sometimes it can get quite comical trying to get them all back in but only if your the one "watching". I have found using a plastic broom to gently guide them towards the coop is helpful.

Josette, that soup sounds just delicious! yuck! but a good way to give your chickens some extra protein eh? what kind of chickens to you have that are so friendly? just curious :)

Sheila

Thanks for all of the responses- Tom, I love the chicken wire trap idea!

Unfortunately, something got to Polly the day after she got out, and DH had to finish the job. These hens came to us fully grown and while two have settled down (due to hand feeding of treats) Polly would never accept food from us, even through the chicken wire. She'd wait for another hen to take something and then steal it from them. We'll be adding to our flock next spring with chicks, and I don't expect that we'll have a problem with such a wild thing again. Thanks again everyone!