First real snowfall came overnight! Fortunately, the hens have had most of their feathers grown in by now (2 weeks of molting) but they are still huddling on our back patio in the warmest sheltered corner they can find. This is actually good, not just because we want them to keep warm - we've also seen the neighbourhood hawk circling around our property the past week, and we'd prefer the hens to keep out of eyesight! As some of you might recall from a much earlier post, we lost one hen (Neko) to the same hawk last fall. This is the cycle of life though. Now that winter is finally here, we have to make sure the hen's always have access to unfrozen water and extra food (as their foraging season is now over), and have insulated their coop with strawbales. The heat lamp will be installed again soon.
Today's snowfall also gave us opportunity to play - and a little snow lady appeared. She has a carrot nose, plucked from the garden of course; eyes made of little round black eyed susan seed heads, and long dried queen anne's lace hair - topped with a handknit hat she made a lovely attendant at our garden entrance.
Hello. We lost our first hen this past week. No sign of her. I hadn't thought of a hawk. Hope your wee one is enjoying the snow. :-)
ReplyDeleteActually, given that the chicken probably weighed twice as much as the hawk, you would expect some scattered feathers around. On the other hand, over here on Shanley I have seen mature raccoons, opossums, and skunks,any of which could easily carry a chicken away, and also, likely do it at night.
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