We think we had a hawk attack yesterday. When Joan got home from work she found a clump of guinea feathers still attached to a finger-sized chunk of guinea flesh on the coop floor. It was easy to figure out which guinea the feathers belonged to. As Joan said, it's the one that looks like she is missing something in back. You can't really see the wound because her wing feathers cover it, but it does look like she is missing a section of feathers and there is a small set of feathers on her back that jiggle a little like fringe when she walks. There were also enough red chicken feathers scattered on the coop floor to make her wonder if we were missing a chicken.
I'll give you some background on how we came to maybe have a hawk invade the chicken coop. About a week or two ago we decided to start letting the birds free-range during the day when we are at work. We keep the gate at the driveway closed, except for that one morning when we left it open accidentally and a neighbor called to let us know the ducks and guineas were out in the road before either of us had left for work. With a little encouragement, they all came back in yard, and the gate was closed. Mostly they seem happy to wander our property and stay close to home.
For the last few days, though, we've only been getting one or two eggs from six laying hens, and we started wondering if they are laying somewhere outside the coop and hiding the eggs from us. We've had that happen before with an earlier flock. So yesterday morning we decided to leave them in the coop again and see what happens. As we have in the past, we left an outside run open that is partially covered by a web of twine that Joan put together and under tree cover. We have left them that way during the day many times before without problems. They seemed to be under enough protective cover to be left alone. My biggest concern was that there were too many birds to exist happily in such a small space, and, when Joan sent me a text about the feathers I assumed the guineas and chickens had it out with each other. There is occasional animosity between the two species, even though they co-exist peacefully most of the time.
The other clue to the mystery, however, was that the birds had somehow managed to push open one side of the outdoor run and many of them were free-ranging when Joan got home. The walls of the run are eight foot by eight foot frames of 2X2 boards, not heavy, but bulky. We have a thick wire that we use to secure the walls to each other, but I hadn't made sure that was in place.
So we think that what might have happened is that a hawk landed on a tree limb close enough to the run to realize there was an opening he could get through, and he swooped down for lunch. He got a handle on a guinea, but she got away. We've decided that the younger roosters in the group must have teamed up with the guineas (a rugged breed) to run the hawk out; and maybe it was the hawk that pushed the wall out. Who knows. But he didn't get the guinea or a chicken. We still have twelve red chickens, six laying hens, five black ducks and six guineas, with only one injury.
Last night when the everyone bedded down, Joan brought the wounded guinea inside the porch, and we put ointment on it's ugly, red patch of torn skin (the wound is fairly large, about an inch wide and an inch and a half to two inches long - ouch!) to help healing and try to keep her from getting maggots. She slept back in the coop with her buddies.
This morning she is running around with her flock seemingly doing fine. The thing about all of these birds is that they pretend to be fine even when they are sick or injured to discourage predators. But the thing about guineas is that they are a feisty, hardy breed, and we think she might be okay. It turns out the birds are safer free-ranging when they have the room to avoid predators and the bushes and trees under which to hide from them. And maybe the hens are just having an off week of laying. We still only got one egg yesterday, but who can lay with all that racket going on? Today everyone is happily roaming our small farm again. We are giving the hens the benefit of doubt and hoping the egg count will pick up soon.