Monday, August 28, 2006
Hawk attack and coop improvements
¶ 3:20 PM 
| Last weekend one of the hens (the Marans, who appears last in this video clip) got out, as she has been in the habit of doing. I left her out because she was laying when I found her, and I didn't want to disturb her. About 30 minutes later, we heard a terrible racket outside and rushed out. Bill got there first - just in time to scare a hawk away from the Marans. The hawk didn't want to leave! When I got outside, I could hear at least two adult hawks calling back and forth to one another. I went around to the other side of our chop building, and heard a hawk nestling complaining loudly. I suppose it was saying "Not Squirrel AGAIN!? But you PROMISED we'd have chicken! We ALWAYS have squirrel!" So the Marans was caught outside by the hawk, and at first we thought she had been seriously injured. We finally realised that she had only lost her tail feathers :-/ Another hen had been outside, and was pretty happy she had been passed over for her buddy. She was happy to go back inside! After the initial shock, I realised ALL four of the other birds were gone. I thought they had run into the henhouse, but when I went in I was horrified to see NO ONE. I looked under things, and finally saw the Phoenix peering back out, frozen in horror. I thought she was dead, but she was fine. Back outside, another hen came running back to the coop - she had either been outside or had broken out instead of hiding inside the house like a sensible bird. But still no Sumatra (the rooster) or Welsummer :-( I figured they had run off and settled in to wait for them to return. To make a long story short, they were both wedged so carefully behind things in the henhouse that I couldn't find them. The Sumatra came out on his own about 30 mins later, but we had to remove a metal sheet that had been against the wall to get the Welsummer out later that afternoon. This is the bird my friend Laura calls the 'chicken chicken' because she was so obviously afraid of all the other birds. A very odd effect of the hawk attack was to make her much more comfortable and self-assured around the other hens - now she seems like a regular member of the flock. This surprised me! The video clip is from that evening after the entire flock was reunited. Unfortunately, the attack did NOT have the effect of making the Marans or the black Arucauna crosses stay inside, so I knew my long-imagined improvements to the pen had to come soon. So Bill and I spent most of the day yesterday working on improvements to the coop fencing. My original 'design' was a bunch of plastic hen-netting stapled to whatever was handy, and tacked to the ground by rusty tent-pegs, with a 'gate' that was just loose netting clothespinned shut (mostly). We are replacing it with a 2x4 framework with nicely stretched netting. We got about 1/3 done yesterday, including the side they were ducking out under and a real gate with a real latch! woo-hooo! Of course we wound up working well into the dark because I had to practically pry Bill away from the "Yard Shark", the chipper that some most excellent friends-of-friend (and fellow poultry fanciers) gave to us, so that he could 'help' (translation: 'do') the gate-work. At least I could help out by holding the flashlight :-/ So yesterday the hens were out ALL day, as the enclosure (such as it was) was totally open while we were working - and we were there to discourage hawks. This morning the hens were ganged up against the gate, complaining loudly - especially the two who have usually been out before I leave for work each morning and again when Bill comes home for lunch and AGAIN when I get home from work. They really liked their 'day of freedom' and didn't like the 2x4 keeping them from slipping under the netting! ;-) Here's hoping they're still complaining when I get home from work!! A complaining hen is a live hen! | |
