He did a head-count and all chickens were accounted for.
It send me into a bit of a tizz. Not just about the safety of the chickens, but we had some heavily pregnant ewes, and I had heard stories about the lack of food around for hawks.
I belong to a “sheep” Facebook group, so I posted asking about ideas regarding keeping newborn lambs and chickens safe from hawks.
I got lots of responses, including: “Chuck a dead possum in the paddock?”. Mmm. The only way I could find a dead possum would be to search for roadkill — no thanks.
Another reply was: “15 years lambing and large open chook run. Lots of hawks in and out of property, and never had a hen or lamb killed by them [sic].”
That made me feel better.
This did not: “I have hawks eat dead lambs in the paddock and then attack live lambs. They are lethal, but nothing deters them.”
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Warren Buckland
Neither did this: “[I] had a hawk pecking out eyes of a still-alive lamb a few years ago. Bull***t. Saw one fly off one a few days ago. [The] lamb was dead and half-eaten, but [I] don’t know if a hawk killed it. [It’s a] fairly big farm and these things do happen”.
The next day, when we were all at work, my brother went out. There was the hawk, sitting in the tree in the middle of the chicken paddock.
Again, the rooster was strutting and all the chickens were huddled in one coop.
So, what to do? Work from home and run out flapping my arms every time a hawk comes near? There are a lot of them about this year.
No, I had to just trust that the rooster would warn the girls to run for cover in time.
The ewes, well, that was another story.
Luckily for us, the ewes have either lambed in the night or we have been home. We had seven lambs in a week. Nothing to farmers, but a little bit stressful for us until we see them on their feet and drinking. One was touch-and-go for a while there. Skinny twin and a mum that just wandered off with the other one. We locked them all up in a pen for a night and all was well.
The lambs remind me of my children when they were young. All they want to do is eat, they constantly call out to their mothers, and then at about 5pm every evening they go crazy, racing each other around the paddock and jumping in the air.
Then all of a sudden they drop to the ground and are asleep in seconds. So cute.
The hawk hasn’t been sighted again. Well, not while we are home, anyway. I think it realised our chickens are too smart for it and the rooster means business.
Linda Hall is a Hastings-based assistant editor for Hawke’s Bay Today and has 30 years of experience in newsrooms. She writes regularly on arts and entertainment, lifestyle and hospitality, and pens a column.
