Henriettamom919
Crowing
This week has been INSANE. My sixteen year old son ended up in the ER with what ended up being a mild concussion and a fractured wrist after falling from a ladder at his grandma's house (was helping clean gutters.) Thank God he is fine but the rest of the week had other dangers.
Living in the Pacific northwest, we have a lot of red tailed hawk ahs bald eagle living nearby. Having just moved our 9month olds into their new coop and pullets into their outside home I've been outside most of the day supervising a lot of change for my flock. I only have three big girls and they're very pet like. Sit near me/in my lap, follow me, etc. My four pullets live in our old prefab coop in a totally fenced garden where the big girls were initially raised before being allowed to free range our 1+ acre.
So Tuesday I'm outside at 7/8am with the babies. I have four littles. Aside from returning flowers we've let the garden go to the chicken and I reuse un-eaten seed into the empty raised beds. The babies are foraging sprouts and my big girls are grazing the grass just outside the fencing in the only part of our yard with little tree coverage, near our fire pit. Two littles have decided to use my back as a slip and slide. Suddenly both are gone from my back, all 4 plastered against the fencing and my big girls are literally screaming. I rush littles into their coop and only then see the big white feathered head hitting ground level.
I immediately make myself big, scream NO and race for my big girls. One is missing. The eagle is gone. My Buff is under the only nearby tree growing her warning and one of my barred rocks is deep under the tree behind her.
It took two hours of not knowing but my other big girl showed up from down near our creek missing a couple tail feathers but miraculously uninjured (except psychologically, she's growled and hid from every crow, blue jay and sparrow that's flown by since.)
Then this morning I wake up to this:
Fortunately, this raccoon is no stranger and I recognized her immediately. It's a long story that predates my owning chickens by several years but sufficed to say she's very domesticated and far too lazy to hunt full grown birds for food. Talk about the devil you know. I threw out some stale cereal to her because she only comes around when she's in need of an easy meal.
Most birds of prey have given up circling our property because we're just outside too much. I'm guessing the eagle was either desperate or not local because despite being fully feathered he was pretty small.
Living in the Pacific northwest, we have a lot of red tailed hawk ahs bald eagle living nearby. Having just moved our 9month olds into their new coop and pullets into their outside home I've been outside most of the day supervising a lot of change for my flock. I only have three big girls and they're very pet like. Sit near me/in my lap, follow me, etc. My four pullets live in our old prefab coop in a totally fenced garden where the big girls were initially raised before being allowed to free range our 1+ acre.
So Tuesday I'm outside at 7/8am with the babies. I have four littles. Aside from returning flowers we've let the garden go to the chicken and I reuse un-eaten seed into the empty raised beds. The babies are foraging sprouts and my big girls are grazing the grass just outside the fencing in the only part of our yard with little tree coverage, near our fire pit. Two littles have decided to use my back as a slip and slide. Suddenly both are gone from my back, all 4 plastered against the fencing and my big girls are literally screaming. I rush littles into their coop and only then see the big white feathered head hitting ground level.
I immediately make myself big, scream NO and race for my big girls. One is missing. The eagle is gone. My Buff is under the only nearby tree growing her warning and one of my barred rocks is deep under the tree behind her.
It took two hours of not knowing but my other big girl showed up from down near our creek missing a couple tail feathers but miraculously uninjured (except psychologically, she's growled and hid from every crow, blue jay and sparrow that's flown by since.)
Then this morning I wake up to this:
Fortunately, this raccoon is no stranger and I recognized her immediately. It's a long story that predates my owning chickens by several years but sufficed to say she's very domesticated and far too lazy to hunt full grown birds for food. Talk about the devil you know. I threw out some stale cereal to her because she only comes around when she's in need of an easy meal.
Most birds of prey have given up circling our property because we're just outside too much. I'm guessing the eagle was either desperate or not local because despite being fully feathered he was pretty small.
Glad your birds are ok... Recently I had a immature bald eagle flying over my property (all brown with no white) but it was larger than the hawks and I have seen bald eagles here. There is a lake down the hill from us which has a lot of places for the eagles and other birds to nest. Some crows saw it and chased it off. Good luck and have fun...
