Carnage at the Chicken Coop! 12/31/09

Our ladies have enjoyed 4 years of relative ease at the Lazy Dog Ranch. We have lost a few to mysterious means and one to an errant dog- but none so graphic as what awaited me at the coop today.

I arrived home early this afternoon and noted when walking in the door that the chickens were not clamoring at the chicken yard door to get out and run. I peered down the hill into the orchard to confirm that Karl had opened the coop – door was open.

As I made my way down to the orchard to let the ladies out- it was apparent something was very, very wrong. I called the girls and they ran en masse with Peggy quacking in fear. I let the ladies out – well some of them and then in the far corner of the run encountered the source of their fear. Trapped in bird netting we use to cover the run was a HUGE red tail hawk.

After muttering some loud explicative I let the ladies out did a count- and saw no carcasses in the run. Damn! Two hens down. I went around to the coop and shut the run hatch- trapping the hawk outside in the run and then went around and opened the coop door.

It looked like a chicken exploded inside the coop. One of my Barred Rocks was no more, Another Comet was plastered in the back of her nest box keeping a low profile and not moving. The hawk had come into the coop to eat his meal.

I went back to the yard- by this time the hawk was out of the netting and hopping around the enclosure. He appeared trapped and I marveled at his size and beauty