Our first casualty...

When keeping chickens, you need to prepare for predators. What carnivore wouldn't want to eat a fresh, tasty chicken? Despite my fencing and the layout of my coop, we lost our first chicken yesterday.

I noticed, around 4pm, that none of the chickens appeared to be outside of the coop. I thought this meant I had some more eggs to gather, since we have been getting at least 2 eggs a day.

I went out our back door and walked to the coop, and stepped into the penned area. As soon as I entered, a hawk flew from underneath the coop as fast as it could right past me and up into the trees behind the house and barn. My first thought was that it was one of the hens, but I've never seen one of my hens fly that fast. As soon as I saw Ginger, lying on her back, legs up in the air in the corner under the coop, I knew immediately that it was a hawk that had flown by me. Yet I went to her body with the hope she was still alive. If I had only been 10 minutes earlier in checking the chickens...

Earlier that morning, Ginger had jumped up on the corner of the fence and was just sitting there, ready to fly out. I ran outside and gently prompted her to go back in. I assume she did the same later that afternoon, and while sitting there, the young hawk swooped in and took her by surprise.

RIP poor Ginger...

Cluckers and Dixie were inside the coop, cowering, silently. Killer, was nowhere to be found. My first thoughts at that point were this - the hawk got Killer as well. There was no sign of a struggle, and none of Killer's feathers; only the large scattered pile of Ginger's feathers.

I headed out towards the barn, and out into the woods, as I saw the hawk flying up in the tree-tops, just waiting for the coast to clear so it could go back and finish its meal. As I rounded the corner of the barn, I saw the back-end of Killer underneath our Christmas tree that I had taken out back and propped up in the snow. I called her name, yet there was no movement, not even a gentle cluck. "Oh no," I thought, "Killer was attacked too!" Killer never made a sound as I went to pick her up. Good news! Killer is alive! She had flown under the tree and was being as quiet and as still as she could. My breath let out in a relieved sigh. I didn't even know I was holding it. I brought her back to the coop and shut her inside. I also found two warm eggs... the last pair of eggs from Killer and Ginger laid before the brutal attack.

Today, I went out and bought some bird netting. It is light, black mesh, with square openings about 1/2 inch length and width each. It is made to cover plants in the summer, etc., to prevent fruit or vegetables from being eaten by the birds. It took me an hour and a half, but the coop, and its penned in area is now covered by this bird netting. From only a few feet away, the netting is almost invisible. The coop is now protected from above and the sides from any swooping hawk.

I had tried to plan as best as I could for any predator that might fancy a tasty chicken for a snack. I was told that this hawk was probably a juvenile and too dumb to realize the danger to itself by flying directly into the coop. Stupid as it was, our poor chicken still didn't make it.

Sweet Ginger. We will miss you.