The Headless Hen

 

"That's it. I've had it with this dump! We've got no food, we got no jobs,... our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!!!"  Quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber

Why am I thinking about a quote from Dumb and Dumber?  Well, I walked out to the barn this morning to do as we always do - morning chores.  It's always a pretty sight in the morning.  The sun is just coming up in the east and the sun's rays are filtering through the live oak and pecan trees, casting long shadows westward across the pasture.  I stopped to just soak in the view and stillness of the morning.  The roosters suddenly break the silence with loud crows that echo across the property.  Sometimes I feel like screaming in the morning, too, but not today.  It is a nice day.

But then, I notice that something isn't right.   Just to the west of the barn and south of the garden, I spot a Barred Rock hen.  She's laying down like chickens do when they are taking a dust bath.  Except, she's not taking a dust bath.  She's got no head.

Overnight, some critter killed her, leaving her body intact, but taking her head.  From past experience, I'm guessing that the predator is either a raccoon or an owl.  They are both notorious for this.  This was a big, fat hen.  You can see that dark yellow fat lining her breast on the just-killed carcass.  She was healthy and would have laid many more eggs for us.  But her egg-laying days are done.

Driving to church today, there was a huge raccoon dead on Louisiana Highway 26, not far, as the crow flies, from the pasture where the headless hen lays.  I hope the bandit that killed our hen is the one that's in the middle of the road.  An eye for an eye, as the Good Book says.  But if an owl is the culprit, and you'll remember that I posted a photo of a big barn owl in our front yard last month, then we've got big problems.  It is illegal to kill an owl.  What to do?  I did catch yet ANOTHER possum in my cage trap last night, but I don't think its possums that are doing the killing this time.

Well, that's where Belle, our livestock guardian dog, a Great Pyrenees, comes in. 

We've tried several times to let her free in the pasture to guard the cows, chickens and goats.  At first, she didn't quite understand her job description and would kill the chickens.  This wasn't working.  Then, when we think she had that worked out of her system, she'd jump over the perimeter fence and would roam all over the place.  There's several problems with that.  The neighbors aren't keen with the idea of a big dog roaming through their property.  Then, she doesn't understand the busy road.  She crosses it with reckless abandon.  We don't want her to get hit like the raccoon we talked about earlier.

I am going to start researching one of those collars that allows you to roam so many feet before a light shock is administered to hopefully keep her at home.  I'll report back with what I learn.  One way or another, we've got to solve our predation dilemma.  

Feathers in the Pasture - Oh No!

Our pullets that are in the chicken tractor are getting very close to laying their first eggs.  When they lay their first eggs, I open the door to the chicken tractor and allow them to free-range.  At that point they are free to roam wherever they desire in the 3 acre pasture.  They'll return to the chicken tractor to roost at night and also will lay their eggs in the nesting boxes that are built into the tractor.

Until I release them, each day, twice a day, I walk out to the tractor with food and water for the birds and then push the tractor one length forward so that they have fresh grass to forage on and also a fresh 12' x 6' area to fertilize with their chicken litter.  I generally take a different route each day and I just observe things around me.  I'll pick up any trash that has blown onto the property, and I'll pull up any bitterweed by the roots.  (I don't want the cows eating that!)

As I was walking yesterday, from a distance I noticed something white on the ground.  I was thinking it was a piece of plastic that had blown in from the storm the other night that brought 60 mph straight line winds.  Only, when I got closer, it wasn't a piece of plastic, it was a single feather.

Birds of a feather

That's not unusual.  Sometimes the roosters can be very aggressive.  Even hens 'get into it' from time to time and feathers will fly.  Except as I walked further, I observed more feathers:

And then I saw the carcass.  This is not good.  The dead bird was an Aracauna hen. They are the birds that lay the beautiful blue and green eggs and this one was Benjamin's favorite - a hen that was smoky gray in color.  It was freshly killed and one half of the bird was eaten.

Aracauna carcass

We don't have a lot of problems with predators, but every once in a while we do lose a bird or two. This seems like it was an attack by an avian predator - maybe a hawk or an owl.  We definitely have those around.  In reading about the way this bird was killed, I'm leaning toward a hawk doing this damage as different publications said that an owl likes to carry off their prey.

So how to combat this?  First, it is a federal crime to kill any bird of prey, so that is out of the question.  Second, I wouldn't want to eliminate them from the area.  We have rats around the place - especially around the barn.  Hawks and owls, while they'll get one of our chickens from time to time, provide a check and balance against the increase in number of the rat population.  My best course of action is to try and deter them from feasting on our birds.

I looked around and found the following item for $11.44, shipping included, with lots of positive comments about its ability to ward off hawks AND owls.  I'll likely order this guy and give it a try:

A Fake Owl to Scare Away Avian Predators

The wise old owl is very lifelike and the comments state that the fake owl has been successful in chasing off birds if moved every few days.  Apparently, if you leave it in one location, birds soon "wise up" to the fact that the owl is fake and it loses its deterrence value.  While I'm thinking about it, this owl may do a job keeping birds out of our fruit trees and blueberry bushes!  I'll post an update once I install the owl.  Who...  Who... Well, the plastic owl, of course.