Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[familypendragon]

I actually chased a red tailed hawk away from my yard with a garden hose.... and I was screeching a hawk scream like a little banshee to make my birds go scrambling for cover, LOL! It was on a long approach from our back pond, swooping in to my free range area with talons out, aiming for someone. I was filling waterers and went for it like a maniac spraying way into the air trying to soak it, LOL! It worked though, at least for the time being. I am pretty sure if any neighbors saw me they though I was insane...

 

[TweetyNPetey]

^^
It all happened so fast, I didn't even think about going to help Boo. I probably would just throw something at it.. I'm a scaredy-cat.. Like the roo.

 

[marmca]

^^
It all happened so fast, I didn't even think about going to help Boo. I probably would just throw something at it.. I'm a scaredy-cat.. Like the roo.

I am so glad to hear that Boo is still around. Give him a few days with his girls to get back to 'normal'. I have what look like small white egyptian egret or herons that can gobble up 15 chicks before one has a chance to think. Was years ago, I can still see it throwing down chick like a drunkard at their favorite bar. Way too many predators for my new hobby. Of course fuzzy type bantams, gentle and probably not too wild wary. Here's to new adventures.

 

[sumi]

Crazy day today.
I was in the coop, having a perfectly normal conversation with the girls (yes, I talk to my chickens... Don't we all?). And I looked over my shoulder, and the Maran roo was missing! O.O A few seconds later, I hear a chicken screaming in the yard, so I ran outside and there was a huge Falcon trying to grab the roo! I was pretty freaked out, it was so big. In a split second, he grabbed Boo (Maran roo) and flew off! Poor Boo was struggling to get free, and started pecking and grabbing at the falcon's leg. Thankfully, about 100 feet away, the falcon dropped Boo, he landed safely and strutted away, ruffling his feathers. After a few minutes, he strutted back to the coop to finish breakfast with the girls.
So glad he's okay. He's a big roo, but he's a scaredy-cat. He's by no means aggressive. We all love Boo, he's such a cutie.

I'm so glad he's o.k! Sally started a thread on hawks some time ago with lots of tips on how to deter them. I figure some of those could work for most birds of prey:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...on-did-ya-see-that-hawk-after-those-hens/0_20

 

[rbaker0345]

Holy Crap Sally, you're right, I'm not that far. I'm scheming now PM me and tell me where in Penn you live. My mom is coming down from Woodstock, NY for Thanksgiving and we're doing Christmas in Thanksgiving. I don't think sh'es gotten me a Christmas gift yet.

Really though, they're young and they're Brahmas, you won't get eggs until the early Spring. But if you are interested in selling a pair, I WILL ask my mom to meet you somewhere. Darn it, I miss living up North, all the good action is up there.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Holy Crap Sally, you're right, I'm not that far. I'm scheming now PM me and tell me where in Penn you live. My mom is coming down from Woodstock, NY for Thanksgiving and we're doing Christmas in Thanksgiving. I don't think sh'es gotten me a Christmas gift yet.

Really though, they're young and they're Brahmas, you won't get eggs until the early Spring. But if you are interested in selling a pair, I WILL ask my mom to meet you somewhere. Darn it, I miss living up North, all the good action is up there.

That would be one heck of a gift! lol

 

[rbaker0345]

Crazy day today.
I was in the coop, having a perfectly normal conversation with the girls (yes, I talk to my chickens... Don't we all?). And I looked over my shoulder, and the Maran roo was missing! O.O A few seconds later, I hear a chicken screaming in the yard, so I ran outside and there was a huge Falcon trying to grab the roo! I was pretty freaked out, it was so big. In a split second, he grabbed Boo (Maran roo) and flew off! Poor Boo was struggling to get free, and started pecking and grabbing at the falcon's leg. Thankfully, about 100 feet away, the falcon dropped Boo, he landed safely and strutted away, ruffling his feathers. After a few minutes, he strutted back to the coop to finish breakfast with the girls.
So glad he's okay. He's a big roo, but he's a scaredy-cat. He's by no means aggressive. We all love Boo, he's such a cutie.

I often have the same experience, except I sit and watch because the Hawk we have here (there is actually a difference between hawks and falcons) is a Cooper's Hawk and his wingspan is only about 14". My hens are so fat that they weigh more than him and they all totally gang up on the hawk and kick its butt. I once saw my AG bantam do some crazy ninja chicken move at the hawk when it grabbed her baby. That hawk was so surprised that it actually dropped the chick (who has now grown into a huge brahma mix and regularly scares poor little Coopy back off to catching mice for a living).

 

[rbaker0345]

That would be one heck of a gift! lol

There is precendent: When I was 14, my parents surprised me with a horse for Christmas. They were so crafty, I still can't belive it and its been over 20 years (I still have her too). They had her trailered to my neighbors house on Christmas Eve and then at about 4:00 in the morning, my parents who had very little horse sense or experience at the time, lead a 5yr old, completely freaked out, Arabian mare through the woods for about a half a mile to our barn and put her in my old chestnut mare's stall.

I had the flu at the time and I was running a fever of like 103 and my parents had almost no other presents for me (because they had just plunked down $1500 for a horse). They didn't want me to open my presents and be disappointed or to have to actually tell me where my real present was. They wanted to surprise me. So, despite my begging them to give my horses they're breakfast so I could lay down on the couch until we opened presents (on account of my fever and vomiting and all), they made me bundle up and trudge out into the Upstate NY winter (this was a winter when it had been like -20 for a week straight), with the flu to feed the horses. I dragged myself away from the woodstove and put on all of my layers and opened the door onto the cold, cold morning only to find my Dad pointing a VHS camera at me. You can imagine the looks I gave him as he narrated my forced march, with the flu, to the barn on Christmas morning to feed the horses.

I opened that barn door and that freaked out horse screamed at me and I screamed right back at her. I seriously could not process what I was seeing. In my virus rattled brain, something had gone horribly wrong with my beloved chestnut mare and she had turned in to a screaming grey monster. Then I realized what had happened and I felt really bad for the things I was thinking about my Dad as I was heading out to the barn that morning.

That mare is 27 now and I just had the vet out at the barn last night, apparently I have to start treating her like an old horse. She has had a couple of episodes of choke and apparently she has a grade 2 out of 4 heart murmur, so no more showing and I have to slow down on riding her. Its breaking my heart to realize that she is, indeed, mortal. I don't know what I'll do without her. And since I haven't had either of my kids on Christmas day, I can officially say BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER.

Chickens would not entirely be out of the realm of possibility.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Crazy day today.
I was in the coop, having a perfectly normal conversation with the girls (yes, I talk to my chickens... Don't we all?). And I looked over my shoulder, and the Maran roo was missing! O.O A few seconds later, I hear a chicken screaming in the yard, so I ran outside and there was a huge Falcon trying to grab the roo! I was pretty freaked out, it was so big. In a split second, he grabbed Boo (Maran roo) and flew off! Poor Boo was struggling to get free, and started pecking and grabbing at the falcon's leg. Thankfully, about 100 feet away, the falcon dropped Boo, he landed safely and strutted away, ruffling his feathers. After a few minutes, he strutted back to the coop to finish breakfast with the girls.
So glad he's okay. He's a big roo, but he's a scaredy-cat. He's by no means aggressive. We all love Boo, he's such a cutie.

Holy molasses!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: awwwwwwe!!! tears!