One of his chores every morning is to collect eggs, turn the coop bedding, and let the girls out into the bigger run.  It’s not predator-proof, but it keeps the girls out of my flower gardens. The space is all wooded, which makes it a perfect, shady spot for our flock to spend their time scratching and foraging and dust bathing. Though they’ve managed to find holes in the fencing several times, it usually works pretty well. We still let them free-range too, but the bigger run is a great way to keep them from doing too much damage in my gardens. (They loooove to dust bathe in my mulch!)One morning several weeks ago, he had let the girls out into their bigger run and was doing his normal egg collecting and bed turning. All was quiet and very status quo. But when the girls started squawking and running like crazy for the super-secure Fort Knox run, he looked up to find a gray hawk diving down at them. The detestable predator was heading right for our sweet girl, Swiss!

Unfortunately there was no fast way to get into the bigger run from where he was standing, so he began beating his shovel against the coop door, as well as yelling and jumping up and down. The girls continued to run to safety, but the hawk clearly had its eyes on sweet Swiss. Fortunately, Lovebug’s quick thinking scared the hawk enough that it flew back up into the tree. But it immediately dove down for a second try! Stinker!

Lovebug continued to bang and yell and jump. And Swiss had the instinct to jump and flap her wings at the hawk when it came close, so it flew back up into the trees again. At that point, thankfully, all the girls made it under cover into the safety of the secure run. Lovebug quickly locked them in, where they remained for quite awhile. Phew!

When he recounted the story, I could hardly believe it! We’ve had other predator attacks, but never while we’ve been outside with the girls. My guy was so brave, and I told him over and over how proud I was. He was such a fierce protector, and I know that his smart thinking saved sweet Swiss.

Unfortunately, part of chicken-keeping is dealing with predators.  It’s not fun and can be really, really sad, but the attacks are usually few and far between.  Interestingly in this case, the darn hawk has tried several times to get our girls since the first incident.  We’ve really had to keep our eyes on them to keep them safe.  And Lovebug has scared it away more than once!  He’s definitely my hero!