We had another hawk encounter today, or rather our new bantams had a hawk encounter. I was outside working on bolt’s cattle panel fence when I heard strange chicken noises coming from the side yard. I looked over, and saw our banty hens and Roosty jumping and flying about making all kinds of racket. As I started in that direction, one after the other began to run away, and that’s when I noticed 2 black shapes off to the side.
cleo, recovering after a hawk attack.
1 was Cleo, an older black bantam hen, and the other was a small hawk! Once I realized this, I started running, and the hawk made one last effort to fly away and carry off the small hen. She got about 4 feet high, but dropped her, thankfully. The little bantam hit the ground running and shot straight into the new chicken tractor.
the hawk returns!
She let me pick her up, and I noticed that she had a few good cuts on the side of her head, but didn’t seem too bad off. her heart was racing, but she let me apply some plantain to her wounds and was soon drinking water and scratching around.
The other bantams, including Roosty the not too brave rooster, spent the rest of the day on the lam, hiding out in bushes, and even making their way into the standard chicken coop. I dont know if they felt safer there because of Rex, but it was funny to seem them all huddled in their together.
the rest of the banties taking cover in the old chicken yard
The hawk came back a few hours later, but with everyone well hidden and on the alert here wasn’t much for him to do. I was bale to snap a few pics as he sat atop a strawbale, looking for his next victim, before he flew off into the woods.
All in all, a pretty eventful day for the banties, and one we learned a few lessons from.
1. Little Roosty ain’t that bold.
2. The geese were not about to come in and save the day.
3. The Hawks around us much prefer to target the smaller bantams vs. the larger standard chickens.