Chickens & Hawks

The first picture is my chicken coop. It is back in a shaded area of my property. All the trees you see in the right of the picture cover a large area and provide lots of shade for the chickens. If you keep following the fence down to the right, that end is open toward our pond. So, the chickens really do free range, but it keeps them from coming up in our yard.

I heard a weird noise out back one morning early last week. It sounded sort of like a hawk or something in distress out by the coop. My son and I went out to investigate. As we got closer the sound moved on down toward the back of the property. I wondered if a coon or something had a chicken and was running off with it. I have heard that same noise several times since then. Then on Saturday, a HUGE hawk flew right over our house and landed in the tree line just down a bit from the chicken coop. Then I realized that it was a hawk I was hearing. So far, we have not lost any chickens that we know of, but they are barely laying back there. I wonder if the hawk is hassling them or if it is eating their feed or something.

I thought I would throw in another sunflower picture since it is letting me put pictures up. =)