Hawk Attack!

Real farmers know you don't name your live stock; hippy chick-farmer wannabes don't listen. On Thursday, January 7, I shoveled out a swath of grass on the path to the coop. My intention was to let the girls feast on some fresh grass in this winter wonderland. Every instinct in my body told me this was a BAD idea. Ever since the girls were just a few months old they avoided the open areas in our yard, preferring to navigate through this part of the yard quickly in order to find a safer area to roam. The pines offer a perfect retreat and the girls know this. Knowing that this open area could place the girls in danger, I strategically placed a few stakes over the path to deter hawks from swooping down on my girls as they grazed. Returning to the house I had an uneasy feeling and I continued to look out the window onto the backyard every few minutes.

Eventually, I convinced myself that the girls would be fine and I stopped looking out the window.

That afternoon, around 3:30, my son looked out the window and asked what all the feathers were doing in the path. I completely panicked and searched in vain for my winter coat- which was hanging on the back of a chair in plain sight. Jay heard my screams and came out from the studio to see what all the commotion was about. I spotted the hawk on the ground near the coop, sitting up straight in the garden near the “wishing well” (a project in progress). The hawk was large and it was guarding his victim. Jay moved in and retrieved our girl- but it was too late.

Only three chickens were in the coop. Frantic and sobbing uncontrollably, I ran off to try and locate the rest of the flock. Jay located Ditzy and Jenny under the deck and made two seperate trips carrying each bird from under the deck to the coop. I was in the neighbor’s yard tracking foot prints in the snow. I spotted the hawk sailing effortlessly in the sky above, which provoked me to scream furiously at it as I shook my fist in the air. I was just climbing out of a snowbank near the roadway when I realized I must have looked like a complete lunitic to the people passing by in their cars.

We identified Mabeline as the unfortunate one and Jay placed her gently near the aviary and the search for the last two missing girls continued. The path was covered in black feathers- which did not belong to Mabeline. Martha and Eleanore were accounted for; they were in the coop. I feared Elizabeth (Lizzy) may have been taken too, as she was still missing and a Black Australorp. Thankfully, Jay found her and Susan B. Anthony under the pines near the coop. We lost one…it could have been much worse.

Dear Friends,

I implore you: Trust your instincts; listen to your intuition.

A close call for Lizzy, but she is just missing feathers- not a scratch on her. The girls puff up their feathers when they sense danger...now we understand why they do this. They freely give up their feathers this way when attacked- making it harder for their prey to latch onto their flesh.