Today is such a beautiful day. The sun is out, there is a nice breeze, it isn't hot but it isn't too cold. Lately things have been grey and wet and as much as I love that, it was time for a beautiful, sunny morning of sitting outside with my chickens. I was out strolling next to them as they foraged. They keep me present as I try to spot what exactly they eat. I then decided to read a bit. I searched the clear blue skies and tree limbs for the hawk. No hawk but I remained vigilant getting little reading done.
Well, that's okay as the coop needs hosing down anyway. I start to hose down the coop while an eye is kept on the girls. I didn't want to get dirty but that's okay we should all start the year off in clean abodes. With the water swooshing so loudly from the hose I am not able to hear anything and that makes me nervous so I stop hosing down the coop. I figured I was done anyway.
I then feel nervous, the girls are no longer in one group. I search the skies and nothing. I realize that I am not doing what I want to do. My behavior has been completely altered because of the hawk. It angers me, I feel bullied. At that moment I notice birds fluttering and scattering above me, I notice that Astrud and Elvis are under the table and I look up again to see that large, calm, cool bully flying overhead, not far up in the sky but close enough to cast a shadow. "Oh shit!", I yell out loud. I panic over who to get because everyone is scattered then run to pick up PeeWee and Fuzztop while commanding the other two , "Inside, inside, inside!" I pick up the two white Silkies as if they were cotton balls on the floor and run towards the coop. I slip and fall in the mud I created when cleaning the coop and Fuzztop and PeeWee go flying into the coop. I get up still commanding the girls to get inside and Astrud and Elvis finally file in. My heart is beating hard, my adrenalin pumping as I start to feel very stupid and realize I am now filthy. I'm a bio hazard, covered with chicken shit, wet and muddy, a real mess. I let that hawk turn me into a fool. I imagined my neighbor looking out her bedroom window wondering what all the noise was about and catching me running around like an idiot before falling in the mud. I felt my face turning red when I realized that I was visible from the street.
Something needs to change. I will not be bullied by this bird. What the hell. I put the girls in their small pen and I sit and think. Hawk has managed to keep me present and aware lately. In fact I feel I am now tuned into it. But I want to do what I want to do and I want my birds to have the run of the yard like they once did. It just isn't going to work out that way, it's hawk season. As long as I am emotionally attached to my four hens, I am that hawk's "bitch"... so to speak...bitch of sorts. How pathetic. Then there is this rather odd (crazy) feeling of being in this dysfunctional relationship with this hawk. If I had a real tough rooster or a good livestock dog then I could maybe be normal.
December 31, 2010
December 19, 2010
No Funeral Today
This morning I heard a thump against the house and then a chicken screech, I ran outside and there was a GIANT hawk on the ground on a pile of white feathers. OMG!!! The thing flew off and into the trees scarying all the birds because I heard all this squawking. Where was my chicken?! Was it PeeWee or Fuzztop and there behind the milk and water jugs I have been collecting for a neighborhood project was PeeWee. My sweet little baby. I didn't know if she was hurt, I was so afraid to pick her up because what if on the other side was a chunk missing or a leg, UGH! She was just laying there but I picked her and checked her out over and over really fast while trying to whistle to the other chickens that I couldn't see. Miraculously she was alright. As I held her light little body I realized how tiny she is and how perfect a morsel she could have been.
When I put PeeWee in the coop because she was FINE just missing her tail feathers, I couldn't find anyone else. Then I spotted Astrud in a hole she dug herself into in one corner of the yard, Elvis under a tarp and Fuzztop under the table, once they all spotted me they ran into the coop and all of them huddled around PeeWee in a corner of the coop. They made themselves so small. I had never seen them huddle like that and they were making cooing sounds I had never heard them do. Maybe it was crying or just comfort sounds for PeeWee.
I have my mother visiting and I let the hens out this morning because it was a pretty day. We should have been outside enjoying the day but instead I went back into the house. I search the skies before letting them out every day but the attack happened an hour later. It's hawk season and I don't know why I felt so secure leaving my hens alone. It could be that there are still leaves on the trees and the tree branches have grown so close together I thought no hawk could just swoop in for a kill. This is a bad time of year but under the trees I thought they would be safe. WRONG! So back to the girls being supervised or placed under their grazing pen which is just too small for four so I will buy another one. I didn't want a chicken funeral before Christmas.
I hugged PeeWee and told her everything would be alright. I gave them all a bowl of oats and bananas and gave them new water with some sugar in it. That hawk was HUGE! His wing span was a tad larger than the gate when I saw him take off. He didn't leave the second he saw me, I had to run towards him. Bold thing. PeeWee is really a true to size bantam , tiny and I think when I heard the thump the hawk had just landed so I got there just in time. I always have an ear for what is going on outdoors, I try too. I have been this way since I placed my first flock in their coop three years ago. Day or night my ears are tuned to all I can possibly hear outside. My mother had no idea why I ran out of the house so fast, she didn't hear anything.
In a way I am gad to get this incident out of the way. I have always wondered how things would play out if I ever had a hawk attack when I was indoors. It's like a worry that came true and now it's off my back. Believe me, it won't happen again. Ordering a pen from Randall Burkey.
I kept checking on PeeWee all day. My Grandfather told me to make sure she had no internal bruising. Those hawks come down with a force. This evening when they were all cuddled around each other in a ball, she seemed fine. It isn't too cold out tonight and they usually sleep apart, two in one nest, one roosting, the other in her own nest. Those poor things had such a trauma. I began to think of how other animals must feel seeing their friends and pen mates slaughtered or killed and how awful it is for them. I don't know when these girls will get over their scare. This evening I became a bit depressed and melancholic over the incident. I love my birds, they are not just livestock or egg makers, they are dearly loved little souls. So much so that they get blessed by a priest in October during the fest of St Francis.
When I put PeeWee in the coop because she was FINE just missing her tail feathers, I couldn't find anyone else. Then I spotted Astrud in a hole she dug herself into in one corner of the yard, Elvis under a tarp and Fuzztop under the table, once they all spotted me they ran into the coop and all of them huddled around PeeWee in a corner of the coop. They made themselves so small. I had never seen them huddle like that and they were making cooing sounds I had never heard them do. Maybe it was crying or just comfort sounds for PeeWee.
I have my mother visiting and I let the hens out this morning because it was a pretty day. We should have been outside enjoying the day but instead I went back into the house. I search the skies before letting them out every day but the attack happened an hour later. It's hawk season and I don't know why I felt so secure leaving my hens alone. It could be that there are still leaves on the trees and the tree branches have grown so close together I thought no hawk could just swoop in for a kill. This is a bad time of year but under the trees I thought they would be safe. WRONG! So back to the girls being supervised or placed under their grazing pen which is just too small for four so I will buy another one. I didn't want a chicken funeral before Christmas.
I hugged PeeWee and told her everything would be alright. I gave them all a bowl of oats and bananas and gave them new water with some sugar in it. That hawk was HUGE! His wing span was a tad larger than the gate when I saw him take off. He didn't leave the second he saw me, I had to run towards him. Bold thing. PeeWee is really a true to size bantam , tiny and I think when I heard the thump the hawk had just landed so I got there just in time. I always have an ear for what is going on outdoors, I try too. I have been this way since I placed my first flock in their coop three years ago. Day or night my ears are tuned to all I can possibly hear outside. My mother had no idea why I ran out of the house so fast, she didn't hear anything.
In a way I am gad to get this incident out of the way. I have always wondered how things would play out if I ever had a hawk attack when I was indoors. It's like a worry that came true and now it's off my back. Believe me, it won't happen again. Ordering a pen from Randall Burkey.
I kept checking on PeeWee all day. My Grandfather told me to make sure she had no internal bruising. Those hawks come down with a force. This evening when they were all cuddled around each other in a ball, she seemed fine. It isn't too cold out tonight and they usually sleep apart, two in one nest, one roosting, the other in her own nest. Those poor things had such a trauma. I began to think of how other animals must feel seeing their friends and pen mates slaughtered or killed and how awful it is for them. I don't know when these girls will get over their scare. This evening I became a bit depressed and melancholic over the incident. I love my birds, they are not just livestock or egg makers, they are dearly loved little souls. So much so that they get blessed by a priest in October during the fest of St Francis.
December 14, 2010
Austin "winters"
Next week is the first day of winter but I am sure Austin will be a temperate 70 or so. While I bitch and moan about fighting 80 degree heat while trying to get into the mood for the office Christmas party, I secretly appreciate the fact that my chickens are fine. It never gets too cold for them.
I am now entering my third winter with chickens. When I started I bundled up those hens when the temperature dipped into the 30's. I dragged out heat lamps and extra tarps. Now I just drape a car cover over their coop and know that they are fine. They have nests lined with newspaper and cardboard then filled with hay or newspaper "hay" to get all cozy in.
Not worrying about them so much this year makes me feel weird. I was so use to worrying about them. If this weather pattern continues I'll have plenty of worries Spring-Summer. They are predicting a drought for 2011, ugh! I'll have six months to worry about the heat. I just have an awful feeling we will see 90 degrees in March or April. I mean it is supposed to be 80 tomorrow! And October gave us such promising cold days.
For Christmas the girls will be getting meal worms. They don't know it yet. They have never had them before either so
it will be truly special.
I am now entering my third winter with chickens. When I started I bundled up those hens when the temperature dipped into the 30's. I dragged out heat lamps and extra tarps. Now I just drape a car cover over their coop and know that they are fine. They have nests lined with newspaper and cardboard then filled with hay or newspaper "hay" to get all cozy in.
Not worrying about them so much this year makes me feel weird. I was so use to worrying about them. If this weather pattern continues I'll have plenty of worries Spring-Summer. They are predicting a drought for 2011, ugh! I'll have six months to worry about the heat. I just have an awful feeling we will see 90 degrees in March or April. I mean it is supposed to be 80 tomorrow! And October gave us such promising cold days.
For Christmas the girls will be getting meal worms. They don't know it yet. They have never had them before either so
it will be truly special.