Recently we thought we had lost one of our bantam chickens, a beautiful black and white polish bantam hen named Fortune. She is a lovely bird, petite and aloof. It is not out of character for her and her boyfriend Macaroon to disappear on their own mini adventures in the fenced backyard. At evening time we were doing our nightly health checks and head count and we couldn’t find her. My husband and I combed the yard, outside the fence, the coop, and the run with flashlights. We walked around the house in every direction and there was no sign of her. Macaroon was in the coop and the two of them are inseparable. We feared the worst that at some point in the late afternoon a predator had snatched her from the yard despite our fence, livestock guardian dog, and roosters. I was devastated. We take the health and safety of our flock very seriously and to think our measures had failed was hard to believe. I wept in the kitchen, holding the counter to stay standing I was so upset. The next day, a miracle happened. Drinking my morning coffee I looked out into the yard at the coop. We have a window in the front of the coop so we can look in on our chickens from the comfort of our home. There, in the window, was little Fortune, black and white bobble head bouncing about. I was shocked. I yelled for my husband to come look, that she was alive! We both ran out to the coop and just stared at her, happily sitting next to Macaroon, totally unaware of the search party she had inspired the night before. We were thoroughly confused. How had we missed her? Where in the structure had she hidden that we couldn’t find her? Perhaps the ceiling of the coop? The walls? My husband and I searched the coop again looking for any cubbies or holes she may have been hiding in so if they existed, we could repair them so she wouldn’t be lost again. What we found shocked us. Fortune had tunneled underneath the stand of nesting boxes and had an underground secret nest! We found 12 eggs in a little cave she had carved into the deep bedding, like a little hidden dragon hoard. I thought she had simply stopped laying because she is an ornamental breed not kept for egg production and it has been a cold and windy spring. Nope. Secret underground Smaug style dragon hoard. We provide beautiful oak nesting boxes that I freshen regularly. Apparently to Fortune they are not up to snuff. She is now Fortune Lazarus, dragon chicken. We thought she was gone but instead she was just underground with her treasures.