Well today I decided to clean my coop before the heavy snow comes. Suppose to get 1 foot, crazy! But anyways, I was cleaning in was the coop at the time. When I heard this noise, I probably never heard before from my chickens. I turn around and I see them all crowd in a corner and the rooster going crazy. At first I thought they were fighting amongst themselves. Then I realized it was a hawk! I ran out and looked around for it and saw it sitting on the ground on the other side of the fencing trying to find a way in. I tried to grab whatever I could to try to scare it away but by then it flew away by itself. No chickens harmed, thank god! I was really surprise on how small it was too! My rooster itself is twice the size! I was also surprised that it attacked while I was there!
Thought I'd post that, haven't posted in a while
Eric
Darn Hawks...
Eric, did it know you were there? I have found that they take off whenever we come out or they think there is someone in the coop. Like I posted before, we made scarecrows from an old shirt and pants sewn together and put on a hanger and hung from the fence posts around the coop and also on the posts that divide the two sections of coop. (we close off one section when we put young chicks out in the early summer to acclimatize them to being out and also get them used to the older ones).
We also put a cap on the post over the scarecrows and move them at least twice a week. The raptors think there is someone out there all the time and don't come around.
I should of knew I was there because I was right next to the door inside, when it tried to attack. I happened on my right side. I guess I was too anxious to clean the coop that I didn't realize it was coming! I think it was really hungry, so it would of came either way. I should really try that, making a scarecrow! I never thought about it, Thanks!
The scarecrow will have to be temporary until I finally get working in the summer trying to put the fencing on top and around the side underground.
Thanks,
Eric
You're welcome.
We don't have our pen covered. It is about 40' by 100' and would be too much to cover. We also have orange snow fencing around the sides and have noticed that the other kind of varmints like coons, possums and coyotes don't seem to come around as often. Our next door neighbor doesn't have chickens but gets all of those varmints all the time. So, who knows.
We didn't move the scarecrows like we should have this past summer and lost an old hen and then a pullet to raptors. I don't know if it was a hawk as we also have a nest of eagles on the property across the road from us. But whatever it was, when we started moving the hats and scarecrows again, we didn't have any more trouble.