Friday we lost another chick, Hermoine, to a red tail hawk. We got home just after it happened, and our poor chicks were totally freaked out. They had managed to knock open the gate into the adult chicken's pen, and as if the hawk weren't bad enough, poor Ayla lost a lot of tail feather to one of the chickens (probably Iris).We eventually managed to catch them and put them back in
their pen (after removing what was left of Hermoine),but they were scared little chickens. They went right into their coop and roosted, all huddled together.
Dan and I felt terrible. Last year, before we had an expanded fenced in area,
we strung twine over the fenced in area to deter birds, as seen in the photo on the left. It appeared to work, but didn't allow us to get in the run, and with our current configuration, we could not string the twine, but had thought the brush along one side of the pen
was enough. Had thought.This morning, I awoke with the solution -- run the twine above our heads. This afternoon, we completed the job. I hope it keeps the hawks away from our poor girls!
4 comments:
So sorry about your chicken. The twine set-up looks like a good deterrent. But your remaining girls will probably be sticking close to the coop for awhile.
So sorry to hear about your loss. It's always so sad to lose one. Hopefully your new solution will keep them safe and sound!
Poor chickens! I'm sorry to read about the hawk attack, and I hope your solution works out.
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Well, so far, so good. We were eating dinner on the deck Friday evening, when Dan spotted a hawk fly overhead. Needless to say, we rushed back to check on everyone, and while the little chicks were huddled in the shrubbery edging the pen, the big chickens seemed completely unconcerned, and all were accounted for. Phew!
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