Rooster 'egg song' == ALERT!

[wsmoak]

Yesterday evening the rooster was doing what I usually call the "egg song" when I hear it from the hens: bok bok bok bok bok bok BA GAWK! over and over and over.

He was up on a branch stuck diagonally through the chain link in a corner of the pen, facing out, with the hens gathered under him. (Uh, girls? Under the wood and wire coop would be safer!)

I finally walked over there to see what his problem was... and caught a flash of rust-red as (I bet) one of the resident hawks flew off. I hear them all the time and sometimes see them flying, but they usually don't come that close to the house.

THIS is why the chickens are in jail until everything leafs out again! (Unless someone is closely supervising them -- I do let them out about an hour before they'd usually go to roost if I'm going to be outside with the dogs and can keep an eye on them. They do a quick circuit of the bird feeders, the horse pasture and then go to bed. Easier than trying to herd them back inside otherwise!)

-Wendy

 

[chickenriot]

Your situation is similar to mine. I had been letting my barred rocks free range until one day when I heard a loud "thump" from our deck. My husband said it was probably one of the chickens jumping off the glider. I decided to check anyway and there was a huge red tail hawk out there !

Boy ! You never saw two old people move so fast !

My husband was running for his shotgun and I was running outside to strangle that hawk with my bare hands . As soon as I opened the door the hawk went flying over our back fence. (chickenless) That sucker looked like it had a 4 foot wingspan. According to one of our neighbors there is a $5000 fine if you kill a hawk in Texas , but, at the time we weren't worried about that.

Needless to say, my chickies don't get out of their run unless one of us is outside with them.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Don't know if there are state fines also, but it is a federal offense to shoot ANY raptor, and the federal fine is $10K. And up to 6 months jail time.