Everybody wants the chickens

I spent the weekend putting extra fine mesh over the two-inch mesh that lines the bottom of my chicken coop. Rats had been tunneling under and squeezing in to eat the grain. It was a long and tedious job on hands and knees, but hopefully will deter the marauders.

Then yesterday, I was outside just enjoying the chickens. That is, I was turning over dirt with a pitchfork and watching them greedily gobble the worms and bugs that emerged.  It’s especially fun to watch them eat worms (or at least what I call fun).  They sort of suction them out of their holes and eat them like strands of spaghetti.  While we were happily engaged, there was a crash and a shriek, and suddenly the chickens were fleeing madly towards their house.

hawk_optI turned around to see a young redtail hawk that had swooped in from the wooded side of the run. It had chased a few birds and wound up in the covered corner of the run, unable to get out.  It hunched up facing away from me. Luckily I had my phone in my pocket, so I could capture the hawk digitally before turning it around with a long stick, and herding it out to the open area, where it could fly away.   Continue reading “Everybody wants the chickens”