Recent content by BlueBetween

Thank you, Flaca Chick! (And Joan, too!) It's perfect for 4 chickens... I might put one more in there but that would be pushing it. If I wanted to put more in there, I might make it one or two more feett wider and longer.

I'm really fortunate that my big black rotty/lab mix LOVES the chickens and thinks she's part of their flock... she hangs out with them, checks on them, is very cautious around them so as not to scare them... they seem to enjoy her too. The day of the hawk in the tree, we were all out there...

I found some more photos of the sharp-shinned on flickr - some people (In Great Britain) seem to call them sparrow hawks. I do think that is what mine was going for - the wild birds, but I'm still cautious about letting the girls out when I'm not around to keep an eye on them.

So far I've seen three photos on the internet of the sharp-shin eating - one was a squirrel, one was a mouse, and one was a small wild bird.

I don't know, I watch the birds a lot. We have feeders and last year we counted species and kept track... If I saw one before, I may have thought it was something else, as I said I didn't really know that it wasn't a regular bird until I zoomed in on it. Now that I've seen it, I'm hearing from...

oh, I agree, if they are eating rats, I'm very happy ;)

until yesterday, I didn't even know these little hawks existed in my area. I'm amazed. I wonder what else has been in my backyard since we got the girls... I know there is an eagle nest a few blocks away and I've seen it circle way way above... I've been letting the girls free-range a lot this...

well, it's a good thing I have big fat hens then, no new chicks for us for awhile, we are at our limit with city rules.

Thank you G-Man - I just got a new lens today, stepped outside to try to capture some photos of the chickadees - and they were all gone - weird! where did all the birds go - ahaha! what is that! A gift from mother nature for my new lens! But then I zoomed in and realized it looked hawkish... and...

oh yes! http://www.arkive.org/sharp-shinned-hawk/accipiter-striatus/ - that's what it was, phew!! I feel better now, thank you all :)

a coopers hawk. can these birds really take down a chicken? it didn't seem all that big - a little bigger than a robin maybe, smaller than a flicker woodpecker....

Daphne, the welsummer? she lays really pretty speckled coppery brown eggs. they are rough to the touch, like sand paper, not smooth like the other girls' eggs.