I live in the country and I know I have plenty of predators, but I trap and kill anything that cares to wander too close to the coup. Yesterday the DW goes to collect eggs and yells to me to come out and see what she trapped inside the coup. I guess the hens were making a fuss and when she was trying to see what the problem was she saw something go inside the coup and knew it "was no chicken butt". So not only was this hawk after them in the run but once they all ran out of the run it went inside the coup to look for more! So I got a bunch of pics and then opened the people door to let it out. Can't shoot federally protected birds. He flys to the top of the kids swingset not more than ten feet from the coup and stays there. It was a small jouvenile, so me and the wife agreed he was probably was no threat to the hens. WRONG!!! About ten minutes later we are watching from the house and he swoops down and flys about a foot off the ground to where the hens were by the wood pile. I heard quite a ruckus from the hens as he attacked and I was out the door in my stocking feet. There were a lot of feathers, but all the hens made it out alive with one being slightly nicked, but ok. He actually chased the hen behind the wood pile into a tight spot between the wood pile and a chain link fence and got stuck. Since they are a protected species could do no harm to him and can not really tell you the rest. If I had only had some leather gloves, a box, and a vehicle I would have taken him for a very long ride, but we don't have anything like that were I live.
I'll post pics when I have time to upload them.
I'll post pics when I have time to upload them.
