Hi guys, Recently I had an incident with a hawk and my adult silkie chickens, who we let out for the day and put in a coop at night. We let them out in a raspberry patch with a net over to protect from hawks, cats, etc. I heard a squawking and immediately ran outside to see what happened. Two adult hawks, a mating pair, were snapping through the net and attacked my white silkie rooster. He had a puncture in his back. Today, he is heathy and living without fear. (He is the bottom white rooster) Also two years ago, we had a coop made out of chicken wire. Apparently a critter created a very small whole in it without us knowing!!(I'll never do that again). We had our 3 month old silkie chicks in there and left them out for the day. Iwent outside to let my dogs in and what do i notice, the chickens were all gone. So these 15 chicks "disappeared" when I see, all of a sudden an owl, yes an owl at 1 oclock in the afternoon, carrying on of my chickens. I then chase it when it finally releases the chick. I had to look under the cars, through the weeds and all over to find them all, but luckily I did. None of them were harmed because the owl's claws didn't puncture the chick because it was so small. They were traumatized but after a week or so, better than ever. (One of the chicks included the white rooster from the picture). He is a real trooper
We doubled wiring and we haven't seen many owls recently so it hasn't been a problem lately. We iept up him inside and washed him off/ cleaned the wound
That's wonderful! About them surviving I mean. I always think that it's a great lesson when you have a non-fatal encounter with a preditor. It kind of teaches us to be more careful without conseqences What an dorable, tough little rooster!
