The Rest of the Story

This post is not about chickens, it is about crows. It is actually the rest of the story for my previous post.

After the Chicken Hawk swooped down in my face, he circled to come back and that is when my other Livestock Guardians went to work. We feed a lot of grain and so we always have several crows hanging around. For some reason crows don't like hawks and will gang up on them. That is what happened this time. They started chasing him, attacking him repeatedly. He did land in a tree but they landed in the same tree and waited for him to fly again. When he did, they started a new assault and then totally chased him away.

Sometimes I get a little tired of their big, loud mouths, but since I got chickens, I have a new respect for them.

Chicken Hawk

And again today I am going to talk about Chickens. I love my goats and horses but maybe I like Chickens because that is what I remember about my Grandmother, her with her chickens. I remember playing in the barn as kids and there were nests set up everywhere. I loved finding eggs back then and I guess I still do.

I found my first egg from my new chickens this morning and one of the red hens was in a nest when I was out there to feed this morning, so I am sure that I am going to find at least one more.

When I went to feed this morning and turn my 5 Barred Rocks out for the first time, two of my new red hens were already out with my 3 banty hens and my banty rooster. I was feeding them outside the shed when one of the Rhodies ran quickly into the shed, then the rooster who was standing next to me made a loud noise and the other Rhodie ran into the shed and the 3 banty hens got up against my legs. The rooster ran a short distance away from me and the hens into an open spot and the next thing I knew a Hawk swooped down right in front of me, I couldn't believe how close it was. I guess it was trying to get one of the small hens. That rooster had tried to sacrifice himself to save his hens.

I have had this happen with another rooster that I had, they will warn the hens and then run right into danger to draw the predator away from the hens. They will even make the same sound as a hen laying an egg in order to confuse a predator.