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stupid hawk, we have a lot of juvenile ones here and they do not bother the chickens in the summer, its winter and game is scarce for them so I am sure that is the only reason he thought it a good idea to have chicken dinner. I will get the big netting, like fishing net stuff, and hang over the top of the outdoor run. they also have an indoor run that has a door so they are all locked in there right now. there is a guy in startup that sells used fishing nets, he makes hammocks and all sorts of stuff out of them. hopefully they are not an arm and a leg. otherwise I found a place on the net that sells them. you should have heard the ruckus this morning. Larry was screaming and my two oldest hens were also calling out loudly, everyone was hitting the dirt and hiding when he flew off the fence. Larry may be little but he is mighty lol. just ticks me off is all...
Yeah, we're getting down to the point where all the wildlings are going to be hungry- and there's an outbreak of snowy owls, which are very noticible, but which also almost certainly means we'll be getting arctic population goshawks, which are sneaky and BIG, and maybe, close to the sound, gyrfalcons, which are like peregrines on steroids. Raccoons are getting hungry, too, since this was a short year for apples, and what game managers call "mast:" acorns, hazelnuts, and all tree seeds. I've been checking all my perimeter fences for digging marks twice a day the last couple of weeks, too.
What's got me worried is I have a stray cat, a BIG calico who acts fully feral. If all she does is take the rats (I found a nasty hairball the other day with rat sized toenails in it) I'll be thrilled, but female cats tend to go after birds more than males and that makes me worry about both the chickens and the chickadees.
my big male cat kills birds left and right. he does not bother the chickens or baby chicks, I suspected him last night but in the end it was not him. all of our bird feeders are penned off so he cant help himself to the smorgasboard of feathers that land on the ground.