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.