Living in the Appalachian Foothills here in Southern Kentucky you come to know God's wonder in the beautiful scenery he has created. I cannot think of another place I would want to live. We live in the country about 10 miles from town.
Living in a such a great place does have its challenges though. We have bobcats, bears, coyotes and host of other things that can get you if you are not paying attention. These things also come looking for your livestock so not only do you need to protect yourself but also your animals as well. This story happened a couple weeks back before we merged our two flocks of egg laying chickens. My wife and I were sitting on the back porch cooling off after a marathon gardening harvest when we heard the chickens start squawking.
Image Source : https://fw.ky.gov/Wildlife/Pages/Bald-Eagles.aspx
Now keep in mind we hear them squawk all the time, one of them is always picking on another, just what chickens do. But this time it was a lot of squawking, lots of noise & our rooster was going crazy. So both my wife and I got up and ran to the pasture where the birds are and we found a pretty good sized hawk in the fenced off area. There were feathers everywhere, we both thought the worst!
Image Source: http://biology.eku.edu/kos/birdmonth.htm
Now our rooster, who we call Roo, was standing about 5 or 6 feet from the hawk staring him down, one of the coolest things we have ever seen. Old Roo was standing his ground, with all 23 hens behind him hiding under the coop. They just stood there and stared at each other for a while then the hawk started to turn away and break eye contact and eventually flew off. As soon as the hawk got air born out local flock of crows pounced and drove him out of the area!
Our chickens raised on pasture
Roo the Rooster!
Roo Eating breakfast with some of the hens
We have been really lucky as we have not lost a bird to any predators yet, we know the time will come, but we hope to keep running this lucky streak as long as we can.
As a note, I did not grab our camera when we went running to see what all the commotion was about, I guess a camera is the last thing you think about when your animals are under attack!
Hope you enjoyed this story, thanks for visiting, will see y’all next time!
Bob & Colleen Browning
Serenity Valley Farms
Monticello, KY
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