Literally just got my pen all fenced properly and this.....

[JenniferJoIN]

I'm sorry about your hen. Those hawks are sneaky little buggers.
Let us know how the further-construction of the coop goes!

 

[halo]

Im so sorry you lost a bird after all that work. Your set up is really beautiful tho. Thats just a beautiful picture you posted.

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

You know....I woke up just before 1:00am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Then I started thinking about the days events and things I might do to prevent it in the future but I puzzle over certain things....anyone watch that show Jon & Kate + 8 on TLC ?
Here's a link: http://www.sixgosselins.com/-Jon___Kate_plus_8__TV_Sche.html
It's about a couple who had twins and then tried for one more and got 6 ! Well anyways I love the show and on one episode they take all the kids to a farm. They get to feed the chickens which are free ranging in this huge open field...and I mean if there's one chicken out there there's a 100 ! I thought it a little odd that so many were just in the open like that with no protection from hawks.....now that a hawk took one of my girls darn near right in front of me I'm even more puzzled......maybe the farmer let the chickens out like that just for the TV episode ? It was an organic farm though I remember them saying....

Oh well, the things you think about when you can't sleep in the middle of the night....

 

[lurky]

Joe, there was a post on here a little while ago where a woman was sitting in her yard in her lawn chair with a chicken on her lap.....when a hawk swooped down and tried to take it right from her lap. I had a hawk go right down into my hunting dogs 6x12 kennel after a robin. So without a complete covered kennel, we all take a chance. I like your idea of the shelter....just make it so one side is higher than the other. We did that too for our silkies. We used sheets of the metal roofing. Its a great idea, when we got snow recently it gave them a nice place to hang out. They were afraid of the snow so they were very happy to stay under it. The only predator i worry about where i live is also hawks. But you also have to remember that accidents happen.
I hope you dont have to go through it again. Be careful for sure about the same one now knowing where they were. I think i also have read about them coming back for second and thirds.
BTW.....i think your setup it beautiful.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
I was at a post-Thanksgiving party Saturday where some chicken friends and I discussed the fact that when you have 6 chickens you worry a lot more about preditors than we did for a flock of 60 or more. A loss hurts less when you have more birds. But also, it seemed there weren't as many losses. Some theories we had:

1) Power in numbers, since there were more look-outs, and more movement to disorient a preditor.
2) Survivors were smarter and taught the young how to be smart.
3) Better genetics since smart birds lived to reproduce.
4) Back then (we all had more chickens around when we were kids) you were allowed to shoot at anything that threatened your livestock.
5) Mom's theory is that people were home more and active around the animals more, which deterred a lot of daytime preditors. And a farm is still an active place.

 

[cknmom]

DH does as much as he can outside before winter hits. Winter is when he gets the things inside done. Sometimes things have to wait most of the year, but it's nice to have things to do inside when the weather is too bad to do things outside.

Our flying predators are hawks, kestrals, golden eagles, owls. So far we have not had any problems with any of them. We even had a golden eagle that would roost in one of our trees but he didn't ever go after our chickens. One of our neighbors though have lost their flock to an owl.

Monica

 

[sara]

I'm so sorry. A hawk took one of my son's silkies this weekend. Talk about a sad event. We have way too many hawks around here.

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

Found this link in another thread in the Predator category:

http://www.cutlersupply.com/store/page.trn-heavy.html

I think I'm going to order some of this netting......(sigh) more money.....

These are some darn expensive eggs I'm gonna be getting........