When I returned from buying feed yesterday morning, the guineas were shrieking up a storm. Imagine a highly strung young matron throwing her apron over her face and running screaming in circles, then you have a reasonable description of the guineas when they see a hawk. The guineas do not yell at cars or stray dogs but they absolutely hate hawks. The peacocks were at a safe distance hooting in response, it was a regular barnyard protest. Minty calling for attention. The birds all screaming like harridans at this hawk. 
As I approached with my boomerang stick this tall arrogant bird flew slowly away. Then I saw the body of a little chicken at the bottom of the post. Quite dead. ( I don’t know why I say ‘quite dead’, you cannot be a little bit dead can you.) Anyway I went to the chook house to check on the rest of the newly released young chicks to find one more dead and dismembered, and one crouched in the long grass outside the pen, wounded. They are a good size. They should have been alright.
So I gathered up my remaining brood and returned them to Fort Knox. Fed and watered them and made them a perch with my useful broom. Then tended the ripped sides of the injured one and set her in a box of her own beside the others. Hens will trample and peck at a wounded bird, so if she is to recover, she has to be isolated. But if I am to release her back into the flock she has to maintain her presence. Hence the cage with the cage. As of this morning she is doing OK. 
Maybe I will try and make one of those arks, and we can start a new flock that rolls across the pasture. They can turn over new gardens and fertilise the fields. But I am no carpenter so we will have to think on it.
Later in the evening TonTon and I were doing the rounds and we came across this. 
Now this little fella was a complete mystery. He had been hatched and abandoned. Ton and I looked at him through the fence. I said “We need to go get him and find his Mama”.
I went out through the gate, through the yards, through another gate and into the paddock where the chick was, to be met by Ton gently laying the slightly soggy tottery wee fella onto the grass at my feet. He had brought it to me. The terror of the chick must have been total when Ton jumped the fence and lowered his mouth over it’s entire body. The chick’s head must have been sitting in the roof of the dog’s mouth, his little legs wriggling between his lips. TonTon pushed him slightly with his nose to encourage him to stand upright, then backed up and watched. I guess TonTon took the words ‘go get him’ seriously. I have got to stop thinking aloud around that dog. We found his Mama and two others under the yard car. 
The first cut of grass hay was raked yesterday afternoon then a spring storm blew in last night and rained all over it. Misery. Hmm. I will spread it back out to dry today. Not a small job. Then we will start again. One way or another it has to come up off the field. The second cut of hay is the one that I am after. 
The tractor cometh. The tenant has begun to work the fields around the house. Noisy dusty thing. Soybeans this year.
Good morning. So far our collection of little chicks are still alive. I will drag Fort Knox around the grass today. It is no ark but it will have to do for the moment.
You can see already what my work will be today. Plus we are doing bees this afternoon, so grab your veiled hats. It is fine, the wind and rain is gone. The sun is up. And weeding after a rain is always a pleasure. All good on the farmy at the moment.
Have a lovely day.
celi
PS. My Senior Son came to the rescue and entering the frey on TradeMe, NZ, bought three pots of Marmite at a vastly inflated price. So all is right with the world again. He tells me that Marmite is an investment product in New Zealand with thriving black market sales. What a thing!! And thank you so much for all your offers of help. I am so grateful to be on your team. You readers and commenters are the best. I am a lucky Farm Girl to have such back-up. Now off to work for me! c
The Kitchen's Garden 
75 responses to “Hawks Love Young Chicks”
I think “love” may have been an inappropriate word in the context of hawks and chicks!
true roger, I was thinking terms of love to eat! But you are right. Hunt is probably more appropriate.. c
Wow! Hawks can be ruthless….poor little chicks.
On a brighter note, good for your son for coming to the rescue on the Marmite!
Yes it is the way of the world hunters and hunted.. Our job is to protect the hunted too. morning! c
That’s all quite complicated – almost harder to police than a fox. Good luck with the ark.
TonTon’s a good dog 😉
I like the idea of these arks that you shift with the tractor, but the kitsets look astronomically expensive! morning mad! c
I’m so sorry for the loss of the chickens. But I’m so glad Ton rescued the little baby! Maybe it can be one of your visiting birds. We have several that we use for programs at the zoo.
Good idea, though I am not sure it will survive.. it looks to me this morning, as though it is blind.. c
We’ve got Polish hens at our zoo, and their feathers obscure most of their vision. They rely on the well-sighted hens in the flock to alert them of hawks and such.
thats the thing I struggle with most of all with my animals – the loss of one or more of them. I remember a fox getting in and decimating my girls all in one night ( faulty gate) It took me quite awhile to commit to getting more, they were my girls after all and I had somehow failed them.Have had quite a few more since then – one of the latest a flappy black young hen my daughter has called Posh – as in Posh Pechkam!
Morning Sue, you are right, when we adopt animals and cage them we are responsible for their care, though sometimes with all the will in the world things do go wrong. This is the part of farming that is difficult. And we have to roll with the punches. Posh Peckham is a fantastic name by the way! c
Oh my gosh, what a drama for the little ones! And what an extraordinary dog!
When we got our first flock of Rhode Island Reds, Desi got three extra Bantam chicks just for fun. One little grey hen she named Bernadette, and she was a real beauty. One day after she was full grown a large hawk swooped down and killed her ‘quite dead’ right inside the pen. After that came “The Bernadette Project” where we fenced over the top of the pen. Works good to keep out the flying predators…
How sad. For a hawk to kill such a big bird, in the pen, that is dreadful. This is why i am thinking of an ark, it is covered and cleaner than the chook house.. A healthier way for the chickens, though i have not worked out what we do in the winter. Maybe the hen house could be their winter home.. c
Some people winter their chickens in the greenhouse!
Sorry to hear about the chicks…sometimes The Way of Things is harsh. A friend out in Colorado has had trouble with them taking her adult hens…
Wishing you good Haying Weather!
Yes this is the way things are. We just deal with it! morning marie! c
Farming is often a challenge, isn’t it? But glad to hear your loss of the young chickens was not greater.
It is the way of the wild world. i shall have to rethink the situation. once a hawk starts to hunt he will be back.. c
Poor little chicks – they´re pretty big so I was surprised to see what had happened. And good old TonTon, bless him. A final hurrah for Senior Son, your Marmite Dealer!
Morning Tanya. they are big, maybe that is why the Hawk did not carry them too far, nasty bird. But hawks have to eat too though i would rather it was a mouse! c
There are so many things to look out for when you have wee birds, it turns one into a veritable Mother Hen – and that includes Ton Ton! Hooded crows are the ones to watch for here, black and sinister things that they are.
Christine
Crows always look sinister don’t they. and a hooded one sounds like something out of a grimm’s fairy tale! c
I NEED a Tonton in my life!
I am not sure he did not think that the chicken was a fluffy ball and was laying it at my feet in the hope that maybe I would throw it! c
Morning C, What a shock to find the hawk’s victims. Give Tonton a hug from me, and tell him he’s a good rescue dog, but to remember to keep his teeth out of the way. I’m so sorry your flock has been attacked like that – C’est la nature, but that doesn’t make it any easier to bear. Glad about the Marmite.
PS Yesterday you mentioned raking the hay into hedgerows – is that an American/NZism? I seem to remember raking up windrows.
windrows! well you are probably right, i was writing without thinking.. I shall check it, sometimes my words do get mixed up .. of course windrows makes much more sense.. thanks ViV! c
Poor little chicks! Another busy day Celi, enjoy! Yay for senior son!
🙂 Mandy
he is a good lad!! morning mandy! c
What a wondrous world you live in – thank you for capturing it in words. Good luck with the ark.