Switch Animals Disappearing on Meadowlands Farm on Spring 2

[..?]

I was playing on Spring 2, Year 1 watering my cauliflower seeds then I go to my coop to pet my chickens then they're both gone. They were in the coop so no wild animals attacked them. I looked around seeing if they were in the grass they were not I checked the new tab and it was empty. My chickens were gone. I did not sell the chickens I only got the 250G from doing the artifact quest. The 500G I started with was spent on 25 cauliflowers (Profit Margin 25% is on) the other 16 seeds are in my chest.

 

[limerick]

This is a known glitch. From ConcernedApe:

"PSA: there is currently an issue, if you start a new farm on the meadowlands farm and open the animal door on the coop day 1, your chickens will disappear. If you leave the door closed for one day, it should save them. We will fix this. Lore: There is a wild coyote on the farm day 1 rn"

(via x.com, Nov 4)

It's listed as fixed in 1.6.10, which might not be available to you yet if you are playing on mobile or console.