Second dead chicken in less than a week

Andrew West found it.  He was helping me with the chores and had gone to the chicken yard to dump the yuck-bucket.  He came back with a serious look on his face.  He had been greeted by a dead chicken just inside the gate.  This one was also pecked to death ... another victim of bird attack.  Very gruesome. 

Rouse said he had recently seen a Cooper's Hawk hanging around.  I thought we could run some wires across the chicken yard to deter the hawk from flying in to pick off another chicken, sort of like what they do over hotel pools at the beach to keep the gulls from messing up the property.  But when I googled "chicken predators" I found a chilling video that shows a hawk "hunting" in a backyard chicken coop.

It was eye-opening.  The hawk did not soar into the chicken yard from on high.  It ruthlessly scoped out the place from the top of the coop, then easily dropped down into the chicken yard and helped himself to a chicken.   Rouse said it reminded him of a velociraptor!  You can be sure my hens will be confined to the "safe" zone for awhile.  Watch this if you dare.  Advice for the squeamish:  Turn down the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWHFHPGgq7o&feature=related