The picture of my sweet Sophie is now all I have. My husband, Mike, called me at work and said "Are you sitting down." Of course my heart dropped and I said "Yes, WHY?" He preceded to tell me that one of the Buff's was attacked and killed by a hawk.
When he arrived home, he heard the chickens raising a fuss in the pen. He arrived to find a hawk sitting in the tree next to the coop. He chased off the hawk and starting counting chickens. At first he could not find any of my babies that are 11 weeks old. He opened the coop door and there were, hiding in the corner with my baby rooster Rooben standing guard in front of them.
Next he started counting the big girls. Two red ones...ok, 2 giant Cochin's...ok, 1 Ella (my Ameracauna)...ok, wait...there should be 3 buffs...but he could only see 2. He walked behind the coop and there was my Sophie, laying there with a large hole in her neck. The hawk had chose her.
I immediately began to cry as he told me what he had found. I love these chickens. I bought Sophie and her sisters when they were two weeks old. She had starting laying me wonderful eggs everyday and was the sweetest soul around. She was my shadow whenever I came in the pen. If I sat in a chair to watch their antics, Sophie would be the first to come and greet me, jump in my lap, and want to be cuddled.
God works in mysterious ways, but sometimes he makes his presence absolutely known. Normally, my hubby would have been driving his big rig somewhere in the US, but that day he didn't have a load. He took care of some chores and was hanging around the house. God did not provide a load for him that day because he knew I would not have been able to handle seeing the devastation. Not to mention, I'm most sure if he had not been there the hawk would have chosen more than her. I could have come home to no chickens.
I told my husband not to kill the hawk because the hawk was only doing what hawks do. However, this hawk was very different. If he left the pen for more than one minute the hawk would come back and sit on the fence next to the coop. He would chase it off again and the cycle repeated. My chickens have a large run approximately 75' x 125'. They hate being inside their 8 x 12 coop except to lay and sleep.
The next morning, the hawk was sitting on the fence again looking inside the coop window. When Mike went outside the hawk did not fly away. He called me at work again to tell me that he had 'taken care of the hawk'. While I am saddened for any loss of life, this hawk was relentless. It turned out to be a Harris hawk. They are not from this part of Texas. They life in the arid deserts of West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We now think this hawk escaped or was turned loose; maybe a bird used for falconry.
We now have some work to do in redesigned their pen. Some sort of netting will be needed over the top, even though I feel this is an isolated incident. We have several red-tailed hawks that nest in the woods near our home and they have never looked twice at our chickens. But now, I am paranoid and want to keep them as safe as I can. Chickens and chicken keeping is a non-stop learning process.
Rest in peace Sophie. Thank you for showing me how sweet and smart chickens can be.
