Adventures in Backyard Farming: When Hawks Attack!

Oh my goodness I've had such a crazy past two weeks. I am pooped! So I'm sorry I haven't gotten to post those book reviews I promised. I'll just have to sprinkle them in here and there.

Cooper's Hawk

Two weeks ago bronchitis, strep throat and pink eye went sweeping through my home. Then, just as everyone was starting to feel better, we started having another entirely different problem. This past Monday morning I was just sitting down to write a blog post when I heard the chickens squawking out back. I thought maybe the dog was chasing them around, as he sometimes does, but when I looked out the window there was a huge grey hawk sitting on the ground with its wings spread, talons clutching one of my chickens. I quickly ran to the back door. I knew there was little if any time for me to save my chicken so I grabbed one shoe and ran outside into the cold without a coat or shoes on, wearing the baby in a sling. It had rained the night before and the ground was slick and muddy, but I had to save my chicken! I ran through the mud and flung my shoe at the hawk. It landed nearby and scared him back up into the trees. The chicken was scared but unharmed and ran off to hide with the rest of the flock. Relieved, but worried I returned to the house knowing there was nothing more I could do to protect my chickens at that time, but something had to be done soon. Later that afternoon the hawk attacked another chicken and I ran out, same as before, and scared him off before he killed her.

That night Mr. Fix-it stayed up past 9pm, working in the dark, to build a new fenced in pen for the chickens. For the past two years our chickens have always free ranged in our backyard with no trouble. He strung fishing line this way and that across the top of the pen to keep the hawks out. We had read that this would work.

The next morning we figured we had won the battle and been lucky to have no losses, but as the children and I walked outside on our way to play the boys shouted "Mom a hawk!" I looked and there was indeed a hawk, inside our supposedly hawk proof pen. I hurled another shoe at him and scared him away, but this time the chicken he had pounced upon did not get up and run away. She was dead. At that moment I was overwhelmed with anger, sadness and helplessness fearing I couldn't keep the rest of the chickens safe from inevitable future attacks.

I immediately called my husband to tell him that our chickens were still in danger. He was just leaving to come home for his lunch break. While waiting for him I took a closer look to see if I could tell which chicken the hawk had killed. It was Betty. My favorite chicken. She had been my favorite since she was a tiny chick and she was the one who had hatched out all our new hens. Now I was really ticked! When he got home we worked together as a family to shoo all the hens into their coop (not an easy task). We knew we had to lock them up in order to keep them safe until something else could be done.

Mr. Fix-it returned to work and we both started brainstorming a way we could keep the chickens safe that would be easy to build and not cost too much money. We decided to build a pvc hoop house chicken tractor using the fencing we had just put up the other day to cover it. Mr. Fix-it worked until 1:00 in the morning to finish the new chicken tractor, as well as he could. It still needs some finishing touches, but at least the chickens are finally safe.

A chicken tractor, for those who are not familiar, is a moveable chicken coop and run (pen). Although it is very large  (5x20ft) it is extremely light and easy to move. The coop is covered with thick plastic corrugated sheets hubby got from work and the run is covered with 3x2in metal fencing we had on hand. It ain't purdy, but its hawk proof for sure!

I'm actually very surprised it took so long for us to have any problems with our chickens. We have not had any problems with predators until now. Keeping chickens in an urban setting seems to make it a bit easier since there tend to be less predators in the city, but our recent hawk attacks were a good reminder that they are out there even if it takes a while for them to find you.