Recently I brought home 5 bantam chickens. The are D' uccles, but are mixed bred. Their feather color is blue. I also rescued a bantam polish rooster who is on the lower end of the pecking order. He gets along with the D' uccle pullets just fine: but the other chickens pick on him.
I noticed that these young growing pullets and the polish roo were loosing weight due to being on the lower end of the pecking order. I decided to take them out to my new/small aviary so they could eat and drink more feed.
While they were out there, I sat up my EXTRA LARGE breed dog crate and decided they could live in their until I could section off the back of my large coop. The plan was that they would have a home of their own.
I went inside for the remainder of the day thinking I was helping these chickens out. They had been getting along well and were gobbling up food and drinking water that had poultry nutri-drench in it.
I went out before dark and was going to remove them from the avairy and stick them into their large dog crate.
It was then that I noticed one pullet was missing. The aviary is made out of wood 2x4 walls that are lined with welded wire fencing.
Apparently two of these chickens were just small enough to get out of the holes and go for a lovely stroll in.....
THE WOODS!
One chicken had decided to run back home, no doubt, after she saw her sister being attacked.
She was outside of the aviary, darting her head in and out of the fencing, trying to get back in.
The other chicken was no where to be found. I had to go pick my niece and nephew up. There was still good daylight out, but they live so far away that I knew it would be dark by the time I came home. I resolved to look for my chicken the next day.
My niece and nephew came with me in my search. I don't know why or how I decided to walk a straight path in the right direction, but I was able to determine that she was indeed dead pretty quickly.
Here are the clues:
We have been noticing an abundance of beautiful Red-Tail Hawks in the area.
I hear an owl almost every night: "Who-who-who."
I came upon FOUR different piles of my chickens feathers.
We did NOT find the remains of her body.
None of the feathers had any skin or meat still attached to them.
None of the feathers were bloody.
My chickens feathers are BLUE (gray). Near one pile of her feathers we found 2 feathers that are NOT hers. They are small with white and brown stripes. These are not tail/wing feathers. They are smaller as though they would have came off of a bird of preys chest area (perhaps).
We also found two feathers that are not hers as well in the same area. They have a very light orange/brown hue to them right at the tips. These feathers are down feathers. This is what made me think it was the Red-Tailed Hawk.
Two of my chickens piles of feathers were close together... a third pile was maybe ten feet away. The fourth pile was a bit farther, maybe 30 feet away.
We then found one more of the bird of preys feathers alot farther away as we walked the course all the way to the road. I was not able to go into the woods accorss the road as it is labeled "no tresspassing" and I do not know the owners of that property,
Here is where I am stuck:
I have been looking at many photos of Red-Tail Hawks online, including juveniles. Yes, some of the photos, these hawks have some striped feathers, but the stripes seem to only be on their tails/wing feathers. The feathers I found are NOT tail/wing feathers. (unless they are base of the tail faeathers or feathers that are smaller for the underside of a wing?)
I can not find any good websites that show all the different individual feathers for each bird of prey through out their life span. THAT WOULD MAKE THINGS SO MUCH EASIER.
I also can not find a good website that shows feathers for owls that live in Ohio. Im from Northwest Ohio, near Defiance.
******* I WILL POST PHOTOS OF THE FEATHERS IN THE MORNING! For some reason they will not load tonight!
I noticed that these young growing pullets and the polish roo were loosing weight due to being on the lower end of the pecking order. I decided to take them out to my new/small aviary so they could eat and drink more feed.
While they were out there, I sat up my EXTRA LARGE breed dog crate and decided they could live in their until I could section off the back of my large coop. The plan was that they would have a home of their own.
I went inside for the remainder of the day thinking I was helping these chickens out. They had been getting along well and were gobbling up food and drinking water that had poultry nutri-drench in it.
I went out before dark and was going to remove them from the avairy and stick them into their large dog crate.
It was then that I noticed one pullet was missing. The aviary is made out of wood 2x4 walls that are lined with welded wire fencing.
Apparently two of these chickens were just small enough to get out of the holes and go for a lovely stroll in.....
THE WOODS!
One chicken had decided to run back home, no doubt, after she saw her sister being attacked.
She was outside of the aviary, darting her head in and out of the fencing, trying to get back in.
The other chicken was no where to be found. I had to go pick my niece and nephew up. There was still good daylight out, but they live so far away that I knew it would be dark by the time I came home. I resolved to look for my chicken the next day.
My niece and nephew came with me in my search. I don't know why or how I decided to walk a straight path in the right direction, but I was able to determine that she was indeed dead pretty quickly.
Here are the clues:
We have been noticing an abundance of beautiful Red-Tail Hawks in the area.
I hear an owl almost every night: "Who-who-who."
I came upon FOUR different piles of my chickens feathers.
We did NOT find the remains of her body.
None of the feathers had any skin or meat still attached to them.
None of the feathers were bloody.
My chickens feathers are BLUE (gray). Near one pile of her feathers we found 2 feathers that are NOT hers. They are small with white and brown stripes. These are not tail/wing feathers. They are smaller as though they would have came off of a bird of preys chest area (perhaps).
We also found two feathers that are not hers as well in the same area. They have a very light orange/brown hue to them right at the tips. These feathers are down feathers. This is what made me think it was the Red-Tailed Hawk.
Two of my chickens piles of feathers were close together... a third pile was maybe ten feet away. The fourth pile was a bit farther, maybe 30 feet away.
We then found one more of the bird of preys feathers alot farther away as we walked the course all the way to the road. I was not able to go into the woods accorss the road as it is labeled "no tresspassing" and I do not know the owners of that property,
Here is where I am stuck:
I have been looking at many photos of Red-Tail Hawks online, including juveniles. Yes, some of the photos, these hawks have some striped feathers, but the stripes seem to only be on their tails/wing feathers. The feathers I found are NOT tail/wing feathers. (unless they are base of the tail faeathers or feathers that are smaller for the underside of a wing?)
I can not find any good websites that show all the different individual feathers for each bird of prey through out their life span. THAT WOULD MAKE THINGS SO MUCH EASIER.
I also can not find a good website that shows feathers for owls that live in Ohio. Im from Northwest Ohio, near Defiance.
******* I WILL POST PHOTOS OF THE FEATHERS IN THE MORNING! For some reason they will not load tonight!
