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46 l Macon Magazine october/noveMber 2013 Pet Cremations from $30 to $289 We also offer pet caskets, grave markers and many other memorialization products. www.hartspetuary.com (478) 741-0409 6324 Peake Road Macon, GA 31210 Located inside Hart's Mortuary at the Cupola Nine Nu-Way Locations in Macon, Warner Robins and Fort Valley! What's your usual? detached garage, and a small flock of chickens stormed out into the yard. In addition to the bread, grapes, and watermelon (which chickens love the most, especially the seeds) that Prater and her husband commonly feed Thyme (a muscular, alpha-hen leghorn), Rosemary (a plucky Rhode Island red) and Pepper (a downy-feathered bantam), the small flock also loves to dig through grass, leaves, and the compost pile for tasty morsels. The only time they're not digging and exploring their surroundings is when they are perched in a nest box laying an egg. "They lay about an egg a day (per bird)," Prater said. To listen to poultry fanciers describe the joys and rewards of chicken ownership, it's easy to be lulled into thinking that their days are filled with endless sunny-side-up eggs and contented clucks. But the practical, often harsh realities of nature rear their head quickly and unexpectedly, even in the manicured comfort of a suburban lawn. Prater's wake-up call came in the form of unusually harsh and insistent clucks coming from her coop. "I was asleep, and I got up, and Rosemary was crowing like crazy," Prater said before adding her impression of the agitated bird call. "I came out and she was in the corner of their enclosure. I saw Pepper (safely) in the nest box, and I looked inside the coop and saw our other hen, Salt, dead, and the hawk that had killed her hanging from the coop netting just staring at me. So I just grabbed the living chickens, closed the coop, and locked the hawk in there. And I was like, 'what the hell am I going to do?'" After placing the survivors in the kitchen, Prater called her husband, who promptly came home and caught the hawk in a pet carrier. He then drove to a family member's farm in Monroe County where he released the bird of prey unharmed. For Candace Danztler, another Maconite who recently added chickens and ducks to her backyard, the predator pressure came from a surprising source. "Our dog killed one of the mallards," she said. Needless to say, Dantzler is now much more careful about letting her flock free range when her dogs are nearby. Despite this early setback, Dantzler and her husband -- a chef at Ingleside Baptist Church and an advocate of knowing where all of his food comes from -- are as devoted as ever to raising