Chickenstock fiesta yardsale August 21

[keesmom]

You aren't the only one Darlene. Came home today to a red tail sitting in a tree next to the Sussex pen. Chased him off only to have him come back again later.

This is on top of the Cooper's that's been coming for the past 2 weeks. I've lost 8 to that one so far, including a cute little black silkie yesterday. And the kids' favorite bantam fav hen, a LF fav pullet, 2 Coronation pullets, and 3 older girls.

I need to cover my pens, I just don't know if they can all be done by winter.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

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very sorry

you must be heartbroken.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

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why do they always take the girls.

 

[keesmom]

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why do they always take the girls.

Well, most were girls. The silkie was a young black lav split cockerel. At least it wasn't my bantam black faverolles cockerel. I have a few boys I can't afford to lose.

 

[howardacres]

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Wow, that really sucks! We lost the one duck last summer to a coopers hawk, but after that day, we never saw the hawk again. We made the covered duck pen in our back yard, close to our house. And we put up reflective red and silver tape that wildlife services sent us, they said to string it several times across our yard. Plus we got cheap dvd disks on sale at staples, and hung those with fishing line around the yard---the wind has now torn most of the disks down though. Our chicken run is also covered, but we have allowed our chickens and ducks to semi-free-range in our back yard---they are sort of fenced with low fencing, but there is no cover when they are out in that area. Never had the hawk bother us again. Now that the grass has died down for winter, i don't let either chickens or ducks out, so they stay in their wire-covered pens. Fingers crossed for no more predator issues---haven't even seen the raccoon since we moved the ducks to the back yard!
Oh, i just remembered, at one point this fall, we had something stealing duck grain right out of their dish, and stashing it under the duck house. We found burrows going under there, and moldy wet grain---EEEWWWW!

We guessed from the size of the droppings that we had a rat---and our hunting cats hadn't been able to catch it. We laid solid concrete blocks to form a patio and put the duck house on it so the rodent couldn't get into the space between the floor-joists of the duck house----so the darn thing just stashed the grain behind the house, where it got wet and gross. One early morning, my hubby was up earlier than usual---he surprised the critter as it was taking grain from the dish....it was a huge fat chipmunk! he scared it out of the duck pen, and our cats cornered it and caught it. There doesn't seem to be any more stashed grain.....

 

[darbella]

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why do they always take the girls.

Well, most were girls. The silkie was a young black lav split cockerel. At least it wasn't my bantam black faverolles cockerel. I have a few boys I can't afford to lose.

Oh WOW, you lot a lot too! I was reading Abby's post about the red shiny tape and I am going to ask F&G for some of that. I am still waiting to hear from my friend that is an officer there also.

 

[keesmom]

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We've had hawks before but not this bad. I suspect the red tail is a migrant, but I'm sure the Cooper's is a resident. One almost hit my minivan the other day while I was on my way to pick up one of the kids at school. There seem to be a lot more hawks than usual this fall. I did notice a higher than average number of rodents this summer so maybe that has something to do with it.

I want to put some birds at our place in Maine just in case something bad happens here. But then over the Thanksgiving weekend I had a pair of bald eagles roosting in the yard for a couple of days. I know they like one of our dead trees down by the lake as they've been seen there before but they usually don't stay for days! Then there was the foxes playing in the snow down the far end of the field...completely enclosed run up there too!

 

[darbella]

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We've had hawks before but not this bad. I suspect the red tail is a migrant, but I'm sure the Cooper's is a resident. One almost hit my minivan the other day while I was on my way to pick up one of the kids at school. There seem to be a lot more hawks than usual this fall. I did notice a higher than average number of rodents this summer so maybe that has something to do with it.

I want to put some birds at our place in Maine just in case something bad happens here. But then over the Thanksgiving weekend I had a pair of bald eagles roosting in the yard for a couple of days. I know they like one of our dead trees down by the lake as they've been seen there before but they usually don't stay for days! Then there was the foxes playing in the snow down the far end of the field...completely enclosed run up there too!

Oh well, I guess someone better come up with a way to easily housebreak a chicken! We are so in love with our birds that keeping them in the house will probably be what we all will be doing next! LOL

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

my Chickie was sort of house trained! he knew how to hold his poop till he was back in his pen or when outside. i just had to remember not to fall asleep on the couch when he was being playful or i would get nipped on a toe! ouch!

 

[shay20]

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We've had hawks before but not this bad. I suspect the red tail is a migrant, but I'm sure the Cooper's is a resident. One almost hit my minivan the other day while I was on my way to pick up one of the kids at school. There seem to be a lot more hawks than usual this fall. I did notice a higher than average number of rodents this summer so maybe that has something to do with it.

I want to put some birds at our place in Maine just in case something bad happens here. But then over the Thanksgiving weekend I had a pair of bald eagles roosting in the yard for a couple of days. I know they like one of our dead trees down by the lake as they've been seen there before but they usually don't stay for days! Then there was the foxes playing in the snow down the far end of the field...completely enclosed run up there too!

Oh well, I guess someone better come up with a way to easily housebreak a chicken! We are so in love with our birds that keeping them in the house will probably be what we all will be doing next! LOL

LOL, We are so close to see if we can open up the big barn and house all our chickens in there for the winter.
Sorry you guys are haveing such a horible time with the hawks, and teh losses are sad, we have one red tailed hawk that flys over head and some times looks like it is getting closer and closer to the pens then i clap my hands to get it to go another direction.