‘A hawk swooped down and took her.’: Chicken stolen by bird as pawrent watches miraculously returns to coop just 24 hrs later

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Oct 13, 2026 8:15 AM EDT

As a pawrent to any kind of animal your main task is to keep them safe. It is the responsibility you take on when you first adopt them, it is the responsibility you carry through their lives when you feed them, get them checked out by the vet and generally when you show them love and care. But even with the best of intentions and the most careful and considered of approaches to keeping your pet safe there may come a day when everything goes wrong and that is where we meet this story. On the fateful day that a hawk swooped down and took this pawrent's prized hen.

It is a moment that no pawrent ever wants to prepaw for, nor is it really a moment that can be prepawed for. After all, how in the heck are you going to chase after a hawk? But nonetheless, the feeling of being powerless and weak in the face of such a danger left our pawrent completely shattered. Thankfully though, their pain and worry would not be long lived as we come to find thanks to r/BORupdates that by some sort of miracle this chicken did not submit to her hawky fate and instead gave fight, somehow managing to free herself and turn up back in her coop the very next day.

We can only imagine the kind of chicken karate that this hen must have had to use to free herself from one of the more menacing birds out there. No less, what it must have been like to try and escape the hangry hawk on foot after falling to the ground. But that is what heroes do, they do not sit stunned waiting for someone to help them. They pull themselves up by their feathers and get the job done.

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Cream colored chicken being petted.
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Goodness, this is one heartwrenching way to start your day. It might not be well known seeing as not too many hoomans keep chickens, but beyond their egg laying abilities, the people who care for chickens often become quite attached to them emotionally too. After all, they feed them, clean them and ensure they have the best possible conditions in life. How are you not going to get attached? So you can imagine that much in the same way that you might be devastated to see your dog picked up by a hawk, this hooman was too. It sounds like quite the harrowing ordeal and honestly we would have broken down and not had a clue what to do either. A piece of this person’s heart has been taken in front of their very eyes.
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Wow, that is a turn of events you could hardly see coming, well, other than the fact it was in the title of this story. Nonetheless, the fact that somehow this hen managed to break free from the fierce grip of a hawk is unreal. Hawks are known for their incredibly strong and scary looking talons. The kind of claws that can rip through most anything and would certainly not have too much of an issue holding onto a little chicken like this one. But through some strange twist of fate our heroic hen broke herself free and actually managed to escape being caught again. We can only imagine the relief and second bout of ugly crying that must have come along with this marvelous moment.
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‘A hawk swooped down and took her.’: Chicken stolen by bird as pawrent watches miraculously returns to coop just 24 hrs later

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