After what seems like a very long eggless winter we are just starting to get some eggs in the morning again! This must mean that spring is coming soon. Right? (RIGHT?!) We had gotten into the habit of buying our eggs at the grocery store the past few months so it's been exciting to pluck 2 or 3 warm eggs out of the coop in the mornings again.
In other chicken news, about a month ago we lost Nellie in a rather tragic hawk attack. Yikes! We've always let the hens out every once in a while to free range in the backyard and had never had any issues. Being out of the chicken yard is way more stimulating for them plus there's something about doing the dishes and glancing up out of the window and seeing a few chickens wandering around out back.
Anyway on the day of the incident the hens were out and I had let Gus out back. Well he booked it right for the coop and I saw this rather large hawk fly out of the run and perch on a tree above the coop. I was at home alone with the kids at the time and may have yelled "Ah! A hawk!" which of course prompted both kids to run to the window and look. You couldn't see anything from the house but the hawk stayed perched in the tree for a good 20 minutes and Harvey kept pointing to it and shouting "Hawk up high!". Anyway long story short, poor Nervous Nellie met her demise. I kept telling myself as I was getting her out of the run and throwing more straw over the blood (I know) that this was a part of keeping chickens. But man, not what you pictured yourself ever doing!
The other chickens had scattered and we couldn't find them for hours. We thought maybe the hawk had gotten them too but ended up finding Michelle cowering beside the sandbox totally still and Betty and Dolly had somehow squeezed through the back fence and had hidden under the neighbours wood pile. Iris crawled back into the cedar bushes to look for them and Betty came running to her and then Dolly came back once Dave came home and went out to look. Rosa had run into the coop and was squawking her head off (understandably).
So I think we may be done with free ranging for a bit! At least until the weather is nicer and someone is out there with them. We have the "allowed" number of hens now and with a new baby coming this June we don't have any plans to get chicks this spring. Hoping we get another summer of eggs from the ladies we have!
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