The dangers of day ranging

Wow. We’ve lost three chickens to birds of prey in the last two weeks. Two taken by owls – one I chased around our field at 1AM with a flashlight – and a third one by a Peregrine falcon that inadvertently trapped himself in our chicken tractor.

He got into the tractor, killed a chicken, and was eating it when the door to the coop got blocked. I was furious when I found him (and my dead chicken), but he’s on the protected list, so I had to let him go. Very, very frustrating.

Not sure what we’re going to do about all these birds of prey. They sure don’t make day-ranging chickens very straightforward.