Last evening Farmer Bob and I went out for a quick supper at a local restaurant that we LOVE. (More about that later.)

I love it when we go out for supper because we just sit and talk over our day and enjoy being waited on and pampered, and I enjoy eating food someone else has prepared. Part of our conversation last evening was about a hawk attack on our chickens that happened while I was in town running errands in the early evening and Bob was working on the goat barn. Our conversation went like this:

Bob: I heard all this squawking and carrying on and looked up on the hill in time to see a hawk dive into the chickens. That rooster screamed and went after the hawk and all the hens ran into their house. There were feathers everywhere!

Me: Wow! Was the rooster hurt?

Bob: No, he didn’t seem to be hurt at all. No blood or anything, but I bet we won’t get any eggs tomorrow.

Me: What kind of hawk was it?

Bob: I don’t know…just a chicken hawk.

Me: No, I mean really, what kind of hawk was it?

Bob: Just a chicken hawk.

Me: Was it a Cooper’s hawk?

Bob: Just a chicken hawk.

Me: Here let me show you what a Cooper’s Hawk looks like. Was this it?

(I did a Google search on my phone and showed him the photo that popped up of a Cooper’s Hawk.)

Bob: It could have been, but I didn’t see any stripes on its tail. It was just a chicken hawk.

Me: Was it a red tail hawk? Here, let me show you a picture of one of those.

(I did another search and showed him this picture on my phone.)

Bob: Could have been, but really, it was just a chicken hawk.

Me: Bob, I think that’s just a common name but not the actual type of hawk we have here.

Bob: Give me that phone.

(Bob took my phone and did a search for a chicken hawk. We both waited patiently while Google searched, and suddenly up popped this picture.)

We laughed so loud that other diners turned to see what we were carrying on about! I’m still laughing!

Back to the restaurant. It’s called The Derby and it’s in Monroe, just about 20 minutes or so away from our farm. It’s owned and run by a great family and the food is REALLY good and VERY affordable. It’s a great casual family restaurant and we love to treat ourselves to to supper there every once in a while. If you go there, tell them Farmer Bob and Debbie sent you!

As for the chickens, Farmer Bob had just moved the fence to make the chicken yard smaller, which was really good timing for that hawk attack. The hens were close enough to their house that they could quickly escape inside. Keep your fingers crossed that the hawks learned their lesson from that failure and won’t try again soon!

EIEIO

Deb