Piles of feathers...

We found a pile of Henny Penny's brown leopard-spotted feathers this afternoon, right near the fence of the front pasture. So now we know the chicken-snatcher was definitely a hawk. We're guessing that the hawk grabbed Henny Penny, took her towards the pasture, and killed her there during a struggle before flying off with her. Judging by the pile of feathers out there, she must have gone kicking and screaming. Which would account for the rest of the chickens being so subdued when we got home yesterday.

Even this morning, when I opened the coop, the chickens and the Guinea hens were as quiet as mice. Not a peep out of them, and usually they're very vocal in the morning. When we took our walk this morning, we put Dolly and Audrey back into the coop, which was easy because Dolly follows me wherever I go, and Audrey will follow Dolly. The Guinea hens had other plans for their morning, so we just left them where they were.

As we walked, we could see two hawks soaring over the other properties. Hawks will flap their wings good and hard a few times, then they're able to glide for a while. That's how I can tell them apart from other birds. When I feed the chickens their bread or corn for their afternoon treat, I'm putting it inside the coop now so they won't be distracted by eating and not be able to pay attention to what's going on in the sky.

Absolute pits, to lose two chickens in one day. And here we were during the summer, making that coop so secure and safe from raccoons.... but there's no protection against the hawks, I guess. Unless we keep the chickens inside the coop all day long, which won't make for happy chickens.

One of our friends from Clear Lake happened to call last night, and when I told her about the chickens, she suggested we put up a scarecrow. I don't think a scarecrow will deter the hawks. I should check the Internet...... maybe there's something that would make the hawks look elsewhere for their dinners.

Good grief........ we vowed not to kill our chickens, and yet they were killed and eaten by hawks. November was not a good month for the chickens: Edie fell into the fountain on the 3rd, and Henny Penny and Jaye-Bird were taken by hawks on the 30th. I hope the chickens have a better December.