We lost two hens to a hawk. We are 99.99% sure it was a bird of some kind. Hawks are around here. They had puncher wounds on their backs and were not hauled off. Dh knows these things. Broad daylight and we have a dog and are in and out all day. So we feel it was not a fox or weasel. The gray girl was my only EE but I do have some of her fertile eggs in the bator. All my hens are going to be fenced in next spring. It just doesn't pay to have chickens free range around here. I am more mad then upset. We would have eaten them had we known. We ate the rooster last weekend. Tougher than a boiled owl....put it in the crockpot all day long and it was still tough. Tasted pretty good though.
I am raising black copper marans and have show quality white silkies in the bator. They will all be fenced in and locked in at night. Just makes me mad to put all that money into feed and something kills my hens and doesn't even eat it. The nerve. Can't even find it to kill it myself. OH I wish I had seen it. I have a gun at hand at all times for this reason. And the time I could have done something. I didn't even hear a thing. Not even a peep. Right outside my window. Course I have ac running and the windows covered with some batting....still I would have thought I would have heard a screech.
I am raising black copper marans and have show quality white silkies in the bator. They will all be fenced in and locked in at night. Just makes me mad to put all that money into feed and something kills my hens and doesn't even eat it. The nerve. Can't even find it to kill it myself. OH I wish I had seen it. I have a gun at hand at all times for this reason. And the time I could have done something. I didn't even hear a thing. Not even a peep. Right outside my window. Course I have ac running and the windows covered with some batting....still I would have thought I would have heard a screech.
