One of my chickens disappeared

[Amory]

So a few *In game* days ago I got 4 chickens and put them in the new coop I made but like a day after I left the door open one was gone and I know I left it open so it could have gone back inside and there is food. What could have caused this?

[dexter]

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Animals#Wild_Animal_Attacks

There's a chance that an animal stuck outside can get attacked and the animal will 'die' (the animal just disappears).

[no1schmo]

Originally posted by dexter:

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Animals#Wild_Animal_Attacks

There's a chance that an animal stuck outside can get attacked and the animal will 'die' (the animal just disappears).

Did you see where he said "I left the door open one was gone and I know I left it open so it could have gone back inside"?

Anyway, OP, no idea. Unlucky glitch I guess.

[sneezyfido]

It's also possible for an animal to count as "stuck outside" when it couldn't find a path to the door at the appropriate time.
With that I should say that this generally takes deliberate action, like placing fences or a closed gate while the animal is on the wrong side.
I guess that truffles could also block an animal's path, but that's a fair bit into the barn progression.

[Tozluk]

this happened to me too

[DasaKamov]

Not sure how accurate the wiki is, but I was under the impression that leaving barn doors / coop doors open while the player goes to sleep is also a Bad Idea. Nothing says 'free dinner" like a bunch of animals trapped in an enclosed space with no one to protect them.

[Playzr 🐵]

There's a mod: Auto Animal Doors that I use so it's not an issue. However they may wander too far from the coop/barn and get snagged on some bit of terrain and they're unable to get back in time for the doors to close so the doors stay open. But it rarely happens and I've yet to lose an animal randomly because of this. But if you left your doors open all the time this is a bad idea because of the fox/wolves that will eat one of them randomly. Also leaving the doors open on rainy days or during winter makes the animals unhappy. So this mod is a must. Ideally you want to get to a point where you have all the animals you want at max hearts and have automated everything so you can then ignore them. Occasionally visiting them to put them back up to max hearts.
Mods: Auto Animal Doors, Deluxe Grabber Redux, Automate, Chests Anywhere.
A combination of all of these mods will make things like this easier to automate, unless you prefer manually doing everything every day.

[SGT. D]

1000+ hours of playing and I've never had an animal go missing due to a fox/wolf. I leave the doors open all Spring, Summer, and Fall, and closed in the Winter. The only bad thing to happen to my animals in all that time is the occasional witch visit. If this animal attack is a thing, then it's pretty rare. To avoid it if it is a real thing, just make a fenced in area for your animals to stay in. They still love being outside, even if it's in a small area.