Backyard Predators

I started out on another blog sharing the escapades of my chickens. They were hilarious! They had such personalities. I had to close that blog because my free-ranging friends had a dinner date with a predator and they did not know it. After a chicken hiatus,

Fast-forward to 2013. I have chickens again. We are in a new location and I have decided to keep my chickens penned for now. Here's why -

 This sweet, loving, cow dog has an unquenchable taste for chicken...and not just the scraps I share with her...

 This is a juvenile Golden Eagle. It is one of a pair and they have been hanging around this winter scavenging for food....

 I could not tell if this is an adult Golden or a juvenile Bald. It was just freaking big.

 A chicken hawk, who decided to sit outside my window for quite a while....

Not a great picture, but, it is of two bald eagles in the pastures behind our home....

I do not have a picture of the Great Horned Owl that is in the tree row behind the house. I have seen him and heard him on numerous occasions. Only, I did not realize it was an owl. On more than one occasion, I have heard something honking in the trees. It did not sound quite like a goose, which migrate through here, but I could not figure out what it was. One evening, when my guinea men disappeared, I heard the honking again. I ventured out behind the piles of fallen trees and saw this owl. It honked a few more times and flew to another tree. BIZARRE! I had never heard that before and still could not attribute the honk with the owl. After some research online, I discovered that Great Horned Owls will growl at you and it sounds like a HONK! It must have snatched a guinea and I was keeping it from enjoying its supper...

So, my girls will be confined to their coop until I can figure out how to discourage the birds and dogs from feasting on my feathered friends.