First predators!
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:16 pm
Well we had our first encounter with predators last week.
I got up to make lunch and out of the corner of my eye i saw something moving out the window, looked closer and it was either a wolf or a coyote, it was huge and grey/white, but it all happened so fast I can't be sure. The dog saw it too and she started barking as I got my shoes on to go out to run it off - by the time I got out there it was gone, but I was only able to find three (of eight) of our hens (they free range).
I went back inside, got my gun and the dog on a leash, and headed back out to search the woods. This was the day before it snowed so there were no tracks I could follow, and we found nothing except a rather large clump of feathers (but no blood) from one of our cream legbars, so assumed at that point at least one of them had been taken.
Returned the dog to the house, went outside and called and called and called the hens, and 3 more appeared from the woods on the far side of the house, clucking nervously. Not long after that one of the hens started making a crazy call, and another hen came out of the woods too. I was pretty happy to have found seven out of the eight of them.
And then, just before it was time for them to head into the coop for the night, the last one showed up, none the worse for the wear (a few ruffled/missing feathers).
The survivors:
The following morning when I went out to shovel snow I heard my neighbour shooting like crazy (unusual for him). I assume he must have dealt to the problem. We kept the hens in the coop for a few days but there have been no further signs of whatever it was, so we have started letting them out again. 
I got up to make lunch and out of the corner of my eye i saw something moving out the window, looked closer and it was either a wolf or a coyote, it was huge and grey/white, but it all happened so fast I can't be sure. The dog saw it too and she started barking as I got my shoes on to go out to run it off - by the time I got out there it was gone, but I was only able to find three (of eight) of our hens (they free range).
I went back inside, got my gun and the dog on a leash, and headed back out to search the woods. This was the day before it snowed so there were no tracks I could follow, and we found nothing except a rather large clump of feathers (but no blood) from one of our cream legbars, so assumed at that point at least one of them had been taken.
Returned the dog to the house, went outside and called and called and called the hens, and 3 more appeared from the woods on the far side of the house, clucking nervously. Not long after that one of the hens started making a crazy call, and another hen came out of the woods too. I was pretty happy to have found seven out of the eight of them.
And then, just before it was time for them to head into the coop for the night, the last one showed up, none the worse for the wear (a few ruffled/missing feathers).
The survivors:
