Hawk Attack!

I had come home from the Farmers Market and had unpacked my vehicle, I collected eggs and everything was quiet (except the bottle lambs). I got lunch and Zorra had a chew when there was a kerfuffle in the driveway, chickens panicking , flying everywhere and alarm squawks. Zorra immediately went into alarm mode and out the door we went. A hawk had pinned one of the chickens in the small pen behind their trailer. Zorra and I got out there before any true damage was done to the chicken. The chicken lost feathers but not her life, she was shook but when I put her back in the trailer she shook herself off and started eating. I did check her and she didn't have any injuries. 

But what this brings to mind is a book I read as a 12 yr old. It was "The Black Cauldron" written by Lloyd Alexander, it involved magic, a wizard, a boy named Taran who cared for the white oracular pig(who the wizard got prophecies from). Now the story being set in the past there was a farm with the white pig and chickens who Taran was in charge of. Needless to say evil threatens, the pig and chickens flee, Taran follows and the adventure begins. 

Later in the adventure the chickens who flew away to a safe place were found by Taran. The being named Medwyn protects any animal who comes to his valley and sure enough that is where the chickens went.  Medwyn told Taran that he couldn't make head or tales of what the frightened chickens were talking about except it was evil. But once the chickens landed, they felt safe, and forgot what they were scared of and began eating.

The point of the above book review was that my chickens did not feel safe after the hawk attack and it took 2 hrs to get them to come out of hiding using scratch/corn to temp them out. I caught  them one at a time and put them back in the trailer. By the time I finished collecting the 14 who were hiding under the old farmers market trailer it was time to do evening chores. Zorra and I went inside to make the lamb milk and came back out to feed the sheep, lambs and the sexy girls. After the chores I rounded up the rest of the chickens in the barn but was still short one chicken. So I thought one chicken had been killed DRAT!  I had just closed the trailer door and turned around to see one more chicken come quick to get into the trailer. I have no idea where she was hiding....but now all the chickens are accounted for...yeah!!!!

​Oh the excitement of farm life!

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