‘Mate, you’ve got a chicken on your diff’

A HITCH HIKING chicken has given new meaning to the term "free range" after it went on a three-day jaunt across southeast Queensland.

Dora the exploring chook went missing on Friday night from a farm at Stockleigh, near Logan.

That didn't concern owner Melonie-Jane McNaughton who said the ex-battery hen was a "nutter" and prone to disappearing overnight, only to show up the next morning.

But by Saturday, Ms McNaughton feared the worst.

"I searched everywhere. I thought maybe a wild dog or fox might have gotten her," she said.

Luckily on Monday morning the fowl escapee was spotted perched under a Toyota Hilux driven by Ms McNaughton's son, Reon Williams.

"He was at the petrol station on the Mount Lindesay Highway and a lady in a red car pulled up and said 'mate, there's a chicken on your diff'," she said.

"He'd been driving to Stockleigh, Cedar Vale, Rochedale, Redlands. We worked out she would have gone about 150km over the three days."

Ms McNaughton said the well-travelled hen, who they renamed Dora after Dora the Explorer, was covered in oil but was back to normal after a bath and blow dry.

Ms McNaughton is now hoping to find the mystery lady in the red car so she can thank her.

"I just want to find her to say thank you," she said.

"Because if (Reon) had run over her, he would have been quite upset."

Meanwhile, Dora's travels aren't over yet.

Ms McNaughton said to help fulfil the hen's wanderlust, they plan on taking Dora for regular rides on their moped.