Heroic Hawk Helpers

While I'm on the topic of hawks, I also had an opportunity to be a "Heroic Hawk Helper" last Friday. I realize this is a chicken blog, but ....

The Learning Farm hens are out in the pasture with their mobile hen house -- the EggMobile -- for the summer. While they're in their "summer home" one of the farmers participating in the Prairie Crossing Farm Business Development Program, Nick from Midnight Sun Organics /http://midnightsunorganics.com/, is using the Learning Farm's indoor Hen House for his layer and meat chickens.

I hurried past the Hen House last Friday afternoon -- quickly finishing up my tasks before I headed out of town for a weekend with some high school friends. To be honest, I was probably already thinking about our plans to participate in the Susan Komen walk together, and working through the logistics in my head.

I glanced in the Hen House and spotted Nick completed surrounded by chickens. I've heard that Nick's turkeys (who make a delicious Thanksgiving dinner by the way) follow him around like he's the Pied Piper, so my curiosity was piqued.

I poked my head in to see what was happening, and he quietly gestured for me to come inside -- a small hawk had apparently decided to join the flock! The hawk was not big enough to be a threat to the chickens and he didn't even seem to notice them, unlike his big "cousins" from my last post. I'm taking some poetic license here in assuming the hawk was a "he" -- he sought out a huge group of female birds AND was lost but showed no signs of asking for directions. But I digress . . . .

Nick and I started plotting about how to convince him to leave. I held the door open while Nick tried to shoo him out, but although the hawk flew right towards the door he kept landing on top of it. Nick was wearing goggles to protect his eyes and I was covering my head and closing my eyes. It was not a perfect plan. We propped the door open with a board so we could both try to corral him out. I decided to live dangerously, and opened my eyes. Thankfully it worked, and he was off!

Perhaps we should coin a new expression about the "hawk in the henhouse" whenever we feel stuck and are not sure how to handle a situation -- we all need someone to point us in the right direction, and provide a little comic relief along the way. A rooster in a hen house knows what to do, but a hawk? Not so much!

Erin Cummisford