Lost two of my girls, but saved the other three :-(

[GenomicsGirl]

The girls were just about 7 weeks old and it was going to be 75 F for the weekend, so I thought I'd try them out in the tractor coop for the first time. They did great until about noon when my mother in law screamed that there was something wrong with the chickens. I ran out back and there was a little hawk, wings wide, clinging to the side of the coop. I grabbed a basketball and nailed the bird with it and it flew to a tree branch about 5 feet away from me. I checked on the girls who were cuddled where the hawk was and they were ok. Then I peeked in and saw that one girl in each of the two far corners

I guess the hawk grabbed them and tried to pull them through the wire. My 9 year old started crying (his was one). We are making a memory stone and burying them. So sad. Last night, we drove out and got three new ones. But we still miss our Izzy and CannonBall. They were so tame and the kids had had them since they were 3 days old. RIP CannonBall and Izzy 11/27/12-1/13/13.

 

[redsoxs]

Sorry to hear about your loss! That is rough. Cool memorial for them, however.

 

[bobelot]

Oh my gosh that's horrible
I can't even imagine the horror of seeing the poor chickens like that
Goodbye cannonball and izzy you will be in a better place

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

So sorry to hear about your loss. It's tough losing pets.

 

[kaeKY]

So many hawk attacks lately! They seem to be getting more and more aggressive with little fear of humans. So sorry for your loss and having to find such a horrible sight. It makes me very worried that even a fully enclosed chicken tractor isn't enough to protect chickens from hawks.

 

[CottonGinWaste]

We've had 3 hawk attacks since yesterday that we witnessed, and probably another since there's a Marans chick missing. It's flown right past me to attack inside the small broody pen. I am not a happy camper.