Boonie Stomper
Crowing
The Cooper's (a.k.a. Chicken) Hawk is a beautiful specimen of nature. But they are not welcome here!
They do not come from here, yet their migration path brings them to my coop. I just lost one of my hopeful future EE pullets to one a few minutes after opening the coop and scattering treats - fresh peas and corn.
Suddenly from the kitchen I heard a commotion in the coop which had a door open and I raced back out thinking maybe a rat was out for the goodies. Caught in the act was a gorgeous assailant just polishing off the right side of BeepBeep's head! My other girls had "vanished" to a tight spot outside the coop and had to be locked back into the coop one by one. They are now terrified of the coop. The hawk is perhaps the same one that got away last spring after attaking my last EE.
So... How long will they stay in an area or how long is a typical migration's duration for these vicious vermicious knids?
On November 17, there was a hawk attack in the yard, to my huge, heaviest hen Donner, assumed a hawk due to only the head, some crop and a bit of liver being eaten, and a mid-day kill.
Very closely supervised the 4 birds left by sitting outside whenever I opened the coop for two weeks after that. It seems that was not long enough, though it is much colder now.
Do hawks remember and return to the same places they ate before during their travels? If so how long will they hang around before moving on?
They do not come from here, yet their migration path brings them to my coop. I just lost one of my hopeful future EE pullets to one a few minutes after opening the coop and scattering treats - fresh peas and corn.
Suddenly from the kitchen I heard a commotion in the coop which had a door open and I raced back out thinking maybe a rat was out for the goodies. Caught in the act was a gorgeous assailant just polishing off the right side of BeepBeep's head! My other girls had "vanished" to a tight spot outside the coop and had to be locked back into the coop one by one. They are now terrified of the coop. The hawk is perhaps the same one that got away last spring after attaking my last EE.
So... How long will they stay in an area or how long is a typical migration's duration for these vicious vermicious knids?
On November 17, there was a hawk attack in the yard, to my huge, heaviest hen Donner, assumed a hawk due to only the head, some crop and a bit of liver being eaten, and a mid-day kill.
Very closely supervised the 4 birds left by sitting outside whenever I opened the coop for two weeks after that. It seems that was not long enough, though it is much colder now.
Do hawks remember and return to the same places they ate before during their travels? If so how long will they hang around before moving on?