Hawk dropped a hen in friends yard!

[ecopepper]

And she wants me to incorporate it into my 2 hen flock of rir. No rooster. Any advice on introducing her to my two? She is blonde in color and look smaller than My RIR. But not a bantam size. What's your ideas please?? was thinking of putting her on one side of fence and them on the other untill they are okay??

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Instead of "the sky is falling", chickens are falling from the sky?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

First, does she have any injuries? Look her over very well and see if you see any puncture marks, etc. Second, if you are going to keep her she needs to be quarantined for at least 30 days.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I second that part about looking for injuries and quarantining her, since you have no idea where she came from. Also, I'd put up a flier at your local feed store to see if you can find her owner. If she's a full grown hen, someone has put alot of time and feed into her, and is probably upset that she is gone...

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Definitely quarantine for 30 days. I just returned my entire flock of pullets because I bought from one breeder....everything going well. Introduced some from another breeder. Next day one from the second batch got sick..then another, the next day another. Long story short, found out that the owner who sold me the first batch of pullets recently had Coryza in her flock and she didn't cull all of them....carriers. I was devastated. I am trying to catch the chicken fever again but it really bothered me. I had been told to put them together immediately so that they would get along from the get go. Wish I would have quarantined them. Biggest reason for disease is introducing an outside bird into your flock.

 

[tnchickenut]

Quote:
Couldn't say it better myself. I would hate if someone (even with good intentions) kept my bird without trying to find me.

 

[Badlatitude]

How far could a hawk have carried a grown chicken??? Id assume not all that far.... Why not take a ride around the neighborhood and try to find who owns the bird and return it?

 

[77horses]

Wow! That's amazing that she survived that.

I'm not saying this will happen, but if you do go asking around if someone is missing a hen, make sure you know it is their hen before you give it to them because maybe someone will say that she's their hen even if she's not, just so they will get a free hen. Before you show her to them, ask them what color she is, what size, when she disappeared, and if they saw, how she disappeared. Again, I'm not sure if someone would try to lie and get a free hen, but that's just what I would do, just in case. You could put up notices about a missing hen and someone could just come and say that she's their hen and you wouldn't even know that they weren't the real owners. Just a thought.

And I agree that you need to check her over for injuries and quarantine her for a certain amount of time, just in case she has a disease or something and if she does have any injuries, your flock won't peck at them and make them worse. I think it would be hard to believe that if a hen was carried away by a hawk and then dropped to the ground, she would at least have some injuries. Hawks have really sharp talons and she could have been injured just by the hawk swooping down and grabbing her.

 

[sciencechick]

How do you know she was "dropped in" by a hawk?? They don't tend to do that. I am a licensed falconer and have a huge red-tailed hawk that I hunt rabbits and squirrels with.Even a hawk of her size could never fly off with one of my chickens. She'd happily eat one of them, mind you, but she'd never get off the ground with one.

I suggest it was more likely a someone getting rid of unwanted chickens than anything...

Having said that, if there really was a hawk involved somehow, she will have puncture wounds and lacerations, so be sure to check her over really well. I've dealt with hawk-inflicted wounds on one of my silkies (not by my own hawk!! They're kept separate

) and the damage can be pretty brutal.

Good luck!

 

[lex381]

i haven't had trouble with hawks but my friend said that she was sitting inside (her chickens free range) and a hawk came and tried to pick the chicken up off the ground but couldn't and so he killed her on the ground.

i hope you find the owner though! Good Luck!