Chicken Hawks

Okay, so this isn't really what a chicken hawk is.

And while this might be your idea of a chicken hawk based on your childhood cartoons, 

this isn't really one either.

Chicken hawk is a term used for 3 different hawks:

Cooper's Hawk

Short Shinned Hawk

and a 

Red Tailed Hawk.

Of the 3, only the Red Tailed hawk actually makes a meal out of a free range chicken.

A few weeks ago, 

I lost one of my Buff Orpingtons.

Nothing was left of her except a pile of pumpkin colored feathers.

There was speculation over what might have taken the bird for its dinner.  

A fox was the frontrunner as a suspect as I had heard them barking in the night, but 

after a close encounter the dogs had with a skunk, I thought perhaps that was the culprit.

Then, one day I'm watching the birds at our bird feeder in the back yard.

I notice the chickens running at break neck speed towards a cedar tree in our fence line.

At first I thought nothing of it.

Those chickens run everywhere.

Then I see a large brown bird swoop down towards the hens as they're running.

It was the local red tailed hawk. 

I ran out the back door, waving my arms shrieking

"Don't you eat my chickens!"

(Thank GOD there was no one there with a camera)

The hawk flew off and I counted the hens.

One was missing.

I looked over towards the coop to see the missing chicken stepping out clucking as if to say

"Where the heck did everyone go?"

I ran over (hearing the shrieks of the hawk still nearby) and pushed her back into the coop.

I turned to go get the other chickens only to see them running at high speed back to the coop

screaming, "We're coming! We're Coming!"

Ok, maybe they weren't screaming, but if they were capable of speech, that's what they would have said.

Now the girls are spending a little more time in lock down.

Oh, they get out, just not on any kind of set or regular schedule-

the same thing the police tell you if you think someone is watching you.

They aren't happy about it.

Especially Bertha here.

I expect to find her one morning dragging a tin cup across the wire.

The Barking Fox

Lying awake last night, I heard the barking of a fox.  It's a distinct sound, similar to a yappy little dog and yet not like a dog.  Sometimes it even sounds like a cat. Have a listen here.

 I worry about those chickens of mine. They're not only my own personal egg factory, they're pets with distinct personalities. They chase the cat, they chase the horses and while they don't chase the dogs, Big Bertha has been known to peck my chocolate lab on the nose from time to time. 

I think Bertha thinks she can take just about anything.