Peggy Sue died on Easter, that's 10 days ago. And the girls are still displaying traumatized behavior. They rarely come out into their pen (see below) which faces north bordering the pasture),
but will come out of their coop, through the donkey barn and out into the donkey yard (facing south). While someone is there.
Today was spring clean-up of the coop, well partially at least. The cobweb vacuuming will wait until its a tad warmer.
Normally the girls will wander around outside the coop while I'm cleaning, occasionally inspecting my work. Not today. They preferred to poke around in the barn until I enticed them out into the sunshine with treats.
Last year we lost Dottie to a hawk. In March, same spot in the pasture. That "coincidence" has me grasping for a connection Took the girls less than a week and they were back to normal behavior. Things are very different this time.
Aww, so sorry to read this, those Chicken Hawks are opportunistic creatures.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has trouble with raccoons, and the odd snake snatching the eggs, but the hawks are fenced out top and sides.
It's always something :(
Hugs,
~Jo
Your poor chickens. I hope things settle down for them soon.
ReplyDeleteJanet, in reply to your questiin, I use a Kodak easyshare camera, a Canon Rebel, and oftentimes just my Motorola smart phone camera.
ReplyDeleteJo
Thanks, Jo!
DeleteUnderstanding chickens, especially ailments, can be a mind field. I suppose you have got to take into account that each and every personality is different, so they respond to situations/stresses differently. It is obviously taking your poor girls a good while to feel safe and comfortable again, but I am sure they will, given time. Do you ever visit hencam.com ? It was a chicken blog by a lady, Terry Golson, that lives in Boston. She doesn't blog about chickens now, but you can still access her archives. She is a wealth of information regarding chickens and she also has a live stream showing her girls. Hope they settle down soon, I'm sure they will.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did visit it when you first told me about it, but to be honest, forgot about it as a resource. Glad you reminded me, Louise.
Delete