I think I see Runnings in my future... I am not going to try and work in this stuff, I know I would slip and twist my back and really be in deep do-do.
I hade a kestrel land in the tree next to the coop while I was feeding the turkeys last night. I had chickens out, they scattered. Then the kestrel flew to another tree. I yelled at it and it flew to a coop right next to shed with my chick pens! I had left the door open as I was only going to out for a minute.. Scared the poop out of me. I ran back to the shed pronto..
It did not go in the shed. I will admit I was weighing how much of the 25,000 dollar fines the judge would access me if the Kestrel had died of lead poisoning... I feel so at the mercy of all these raptors! BTW the dogs were outside with me and that did not dissuade it either.
That stinks, it seems like the only predators I've had since we moved to Minnesota are the Hawks and kestrels, which isn't bad compared to coons and dogs. The Hawks haven't taken any, yet.
Last spring I was in a pen with the new chicks and they made a warning noise so I looked up and a hawk (I think it was a sharp shinned hawk or Cooper's hawk) flew so low past me I could see the top of its back. I shut the chicks in the coop.
The other time I saw it was about four months later. I was outside and all of a sudden the chickens started screaming. I ran over there and I saw a hawk flying really low reaching for one of my bantams who was running for its life. Even my bantam roo was scared! I ran over to it and screamed at it and then it flew away. It was smaller than my standard size hen but bigger than my bantam roo (Pumpkin). I haven't seen it since.
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