Good news-got first egg!! Bad news-lost my favorite roo....

[mommahento5]

Hi everyone. I have a 2-part question and didn't know where to put it, so I finally decided to focus on the positive.

It has been a rough 2 weeks around here. We have been loosing a chicken every other day or so to what we are assuming is hawks. The only evidence is a small handful of feathers each time, in about the same place also. (within a 15 feet diameter area) Whatever it is got my favorite pretty boy Earl, a gorgeous 17 week old Black Giant cockerel. My poor baby...I just cried and cried.

I have been keeping the girls and my one remaining rooster confined to the coop and the run now, but I would love to let them free range again. Any ideas on detering hawks???

Secondly, the evening when Earl went missing I was searching everywhere and found my first egg!!!!!

It was under a mower mulching shell. I assume it was laid by one of my 5 red sex links, who all turned 18 weeks old yesterday. Today I got 4 more eggs!!!! I am thrilled! Since I have kept them cooped and confined to the run the past 2 days , they laid the four today in the coop (we REALLY need to get those nest boxes built!). However I am hoping to be able to start letting them out more again. How do I convince them to keep laying in the coop and not outside??? The eggs were all so cute! Bigger than I thought they would be too. Or at least they were bigger than banty eggs. I was expecting teeny little eggs. Is that just a sex-link thing? Will my more "traditional" birds lay the tiny little pullet eggs you hear about?

 

[justusnak]

Getting those nest boxes in is very inportant now. I would keep them locked up,after you get the nest boxes in...at least untill they learn to lay in them. Try golf balls....plastic easter eggs. Once they learn to lay in the nest boxes....only let them out when you are there to keep an eye on them. Keep the water hose handy. When you see the hawk, spray it. It will soon get the idea....your chickens are off limits! Oh, and congrats on the eggs!!!

 

[NJfarmer]

I have read that you can stop crows from eating the food in your garden by flipping a CD upside down so that the shiney bottom faces the sun. They get blinded by the glare when they fly over it. You can use those free AOL discs and I am sure it could prob. work for keeping hawks away from your chickens but I would't depend on it 100% but its worth a try.