Okay, so I have 4 silkies and 4 bantams of unknown breed. About three weeks ago, I let them all free-range for the first time, since it was warm-ish and I was going to be home all day. Well, a couple hours later I notice that my mama bantam was missing. Go searching for her, and this hawk is chasing her in the front yard, and papa bantam is chasing both of them. The whole parade goes onto the porch, with mama ducking behind my couch I've got out there, and the hawk smacked the window. (I'm only telling this story because the hawk is making me mad, and I just wanted to share his/her pain.) So, after the hawk hit the window, he/she starts chasing papa bantam. Papa runs off the porch and ducks under a pine tree in the yard. At this point, I'm armed with a rake, and I "allegedly" smacked the hawk with the rake. Hawk figures out that chicken dinner isn't worth it and flies off.
Fast forward to 20 minutes ago. All the chickens are in their covered run area, because I'm still too paranoid to let them free range. I just got done feeding and watering them, and go inside. 2 minutes later, all the chickens are making crazy, scared sounding noises. Run outside, thinking the neighbor's dog might be looking at them funny, as she does. But, no, there's the hawk again, and she has one of my pullet bantams through the chicken wire. I don't know yet if the pullet is okay, because she won't come anywhere near me to catch her. But my question is this: How do I make this hawk go away? I thought they would be safe in the run, at least from an aerial assault. But no, this hawk isn't a quitter.
Fast forward to 20 minutes ago. All the chickens are in their covered run area, because I'm still too paranoid to let them free range. I just got done feeding and watering them, and go inside. 2 minutes later, all the chickens are making crazy, scared sounding noises. Run outside, thinking the neighbor's dog might be looking at them funny, as she does. But, no, there's the hawk again, and she has one of my pullet bantams through the chicken wire. I don't know yet if the pullet is okay, because she won't come anywhere near me to catch her. But my question is this: How do I make this hawk go away? I thought they would be safe in the run, at least from an aerial assault. But no, this hawk isn't a quitter.
