Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[smkchick]

Hey Maggie!

Great to see you here again. I wish I could have roos here in Huntington but no go. I just love their attitude - and they're always so handsome!

We're planning MORE expansion of the run because of the hawk issue. Do you get a lot of hawks on SI?

Hope all's well and you're enjoying your fine feathered friends!

I'll pass your congratulations on to Gladys...

 

[ChickenAl]

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Suzanne, WOOOOW! Do the egg dance.

Gladys, Gladys, Gladys.

And such a nice sized egg for the first one. I know you are as happy as a chicken mama can be right now. Bobby must be just as excited.

Great news. Now, going out to the coop in the morning has a whole new meaning!

 

[ChickenAl]

Maggie, glad to see you posted tonight. You had us worried there.

Taking care of the house can be time consuming. You'll have a couple of warm days coming to get more done.

Stay in touch. Hope you had a good thanksgiving. Talk to you soon.

 

[ChickenAl]

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So true, Al, so true!

I opened the back door to let the dog out this morning and there was Gladys, squawking away. I left the door to the nest box open all night!

Of course, I panicked, but everyone was present and accounted for. I left the door open yesterday to put fresh hay in the nesting boxes and then forgot to do it. While I was putting in the hay this morning, Gladys came up to me and squatted next to me. I reached down and scratched her back for a few minutes. She jumped up into the nesting boxes and poked around in the hay. I closed the door to give her privacy just in case.

Haven't been outside to check. Don't you admire my restraint??

Suzanne, I read this and thought, how did she have such restraint and then find the egg? Your powers of restraint are as good as mine. Bet you were pacing up and down the floor, eh?

 

[smkchick]

Okay, I admit it. I DID check the nesting box three times yesterday. In fact, it was around 4pm when I found the egg. Bobby and I were heading out to get a Christmas tree and I decided to check one more time. Bobby was laughing at me.

When I opened the box and found the egg, he thought I was yanking his chain. I guess he figured out from the jumping up and down that there really was an egg there!

 

[smkchick]

I was just reading a post from a Navy man in Afghanistan who started raising chickens. How cool is that??

 

[stoopid]

Go go, Gladys, go!

Did you give her a butt massage?

 

[smkchick]

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You are so funny. I did!

 

[magsrags]

Hawks..............yes. Goshawks and Peregrine Facons. Those Goshawks are HUGE! For the past 3 days I have had a Peregrine high in my tree tops watch me watch him. Everyone is on lockdown.

I couldn't get a good picture yesterday with my digital camera. I need a good zoom lens.
I haven't seen the hawks since last winter. Guess food is getting harder to come by. Now they are clearly seeing my girls again cause all the leaves are down and I have a huge landing strip/alley. Momma Snow-Cone keeps growling up at the tree it sits in, and the peeps stay under their coop hiding. They are well protected and enclosed.

It is a beautiful falcon. In flight it is just awesome as it flies right overhead. What a wingspan they have.

I am going to try to catch up with all the posts later today and see what I have missed lately.


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[smkchick]

Well, I let the girls out this morning. I hated to keep them cooped up all day again. Bobby's home and will be working in the yard, so maybe he'll be a bit of deterrent to the hawks.

I haven't seen or heard from any of the raptors of the sky in the last couple of days. I noticed some crows were back in the front yard, and the mourning doves were again stealing feed in the back. The last few days have been eerily birdless. I guess everyone was keeping a low profile.

Until we get the run expanded, I think I'm just going to vary the times the girls go out - late in the day mostly - and I'll keep them in once in a while. I don't want to keep them cooped up all the time, but if they're out all day, they're just targets.

In the meantime, I read the article about attracting crows and will start filling the birdfeeders again. We used to have hundreds of them in the neighborhood.

Maybe I'll start keeping pigeons in the front to throw the hawks off the scent...