2 shots, 2 misses, 1 kill

The chickens were confined to the coop today after the discovery of a dead faverolle in the run yesterday evening.  Its chest was open and guts flung outside the cavity.  It was apparent that a hawk had paid a visit.  As the weather gets colder, they will be more stressed for food.

This morning Youssef, the resident intern who is ok with being mentioned on the blog and has shown interest in making posts himself, and myself were coming down from working towards completion of the rocket mass heater in the greenhouse.  There were eight large turkeys in the field and while we were joking about taking one for thanksgiving dinner, the hawk flew into the chicken run directly across our field of view.  We drove down to the run, and I drew my pistol firing one shot.  My review of the XS Big Dot sights is that they are too large to shoot hawks that are eating your chickens.  I missed.  They are more intended for large targets and close range.

Youssef and I had the same idea almost instantly.  We retrieved the chicken after removing it yesterday and set it back in the run.  The trap was set.  We around until the small birds started chirping near us, and we knew the hawk was gone.

I good time later, it might as well been deja vu.  The hawk flew over the truck as we came down from the greenhouse again.  It had taken the bait, however my drive by skills are lacking and he got away again.

The dead chicken remains in the run waiting for another opportunity to serve justice to her killer tomorrow.

I have been putting off the net over the run.  This serves as a sign it is time to do so.

In addition to fighting the hawk, Youssef and myself drove all over town looking for a 12in diameter stove pipe.  After trying several stores in person and several others over the phone, one of those phone calls yielded some information as to where to look.  I gave the recommendation a call.  It was almost as if fate connected us.  I told him that I needed a 12in diameter pipe as he was a metal shop, and he asked how thick I needed it.  I proceeded to tell him that I really just needed stove pipe, but no one in town had it so I assumed I was going to have to get a thick pipe.  It just so happened that he had a piece of scrap stove pipe that was 1 inch taller than the length we needed.  In the time it took us to get there he had cut it down to size.  Tomorrow we will complete the heat riser assembly for the rocket stove, burn some paint off a barrel, and bust up this hawk with a .410.  I am usually such a fan of hawks and their beauty, but I am a greater fan of my chickens, and an even greater fan of scrambled eggs, but the greatest fan of chicken parmesan.