back when i had a cockatiel he had an aiviary, and every day a cooper's hawk would come stare at him. this lasted about a month
Oh gee. Just the thread I was looking for. I recently acquired three half-starved 9 month old cornish crosses. A mere 12-15lbs each. Three of them went into a 4X4 chicken tractor to spend a few days on good feed before butcher. I awoke today to SCREAMING CHICKENS in my backyard. I peered out my window and counted the number of birds in the tractor.... One, two, three... Four? I ran outside and this is what I found INSIDE my tractor. Yep. That's my chicken tractor. And that, my friend in a panicked, trapped, chicken-killing rough footed hawk. This bird has been stalking my property all year. Has taken a couple of baby animals and killed a CX earlier in the year from a different group that I raised out. Proceeded to dive bomb my tractors for months even when the CX's hit like 8lbs. I processed those birds and never saw the hawk again until today. The door to my tractor is like a funnel; easy to put things in, hardtop lift things out. The hawk went in the top to get at the chickens, realized there birds weighed 5X's what it did, and proceeded to not be able to get out. It was lunging at the walls, grabbing them, and then falling on it's back only to be trampled by chickens into the mud. Eventually we just lifted the tractor and released ALL the birds. The hawk was in too much shock to fly away even when I shoo'd at it and chased it. It just ran onto my compost pile and sat there. I ended up having to figure out a way to lift it up and carry it off. I really hope this flippin' bird has learned not to mess with my chickens! Look at it's scraggly bum! It was so badly freaked out. Here's a picture of me in my PJs still carrying the hawk off to release it back into the wild, hopefully to never return. This was the only way the hawk would let me carry him. He kept trying to flap away (to the ground) and claw me otherwise. He was let go outside my yard and about an hour later flew away. And now I have an epic hawk story to share. Yep. Screw you, hawk. Never come back!
I've been free-ranging my main flock for about a year. Yesterday, I heard a scream so I went outback and saw the tiniest hawk ever attacking a blue jay. :l Welp, only supervised free ranging from now on.
That's a crazy story! What a beautiful bird though. He kills chickens, but he sure is beautiful. Good luck to you, and I hope he doesn't visit your property again! (BTW It's crazy how beautiful chicken predators can be. Hawks, foxes, minks. Very beautiful animals, but not fun if you're a chicken farmer.)
Your lucky, my beautiful Gold, (a hen that layed amazing eggs!) Was takes by an eagle and eaten. :'-( Two days before the STAAR test, too. :-(
Gosh I am so sorry about your loss. As a teacher and a mom I put very little stock in the results of a standardized test like that. Exactly what does it measure? That on a really good day, a student of any background, may or may not be able to conjure up answers ( difficult ones) under enormous amounts of stress in a certain amount of time? Don't ever let a test like that determine who you are...any one can do anything if you just set your mind to it!!
