If a hawk was raised with a chicken...

Horseman1074 said:

Since hawks will eat each other if they get hungry, it wouldn't matter if it was raised with chickens or not.

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But then again, so do chickens.

ChickenLayD said:

If hawks were raised with chickens, would they get along? Or would the hunting instinct take the hawk over?

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I was raised on a commercial chicken farm and for almost 50 years I have bred, and raised games but still every once and a while I eat chicken. I hope that this helps you. Oh BTW, a Native American of my acquaints once advised me that "hawk" tastes just like chicken.

This might stray a bit OT, but this thread is reminding me of a couple of books. Anyone ever read Gifts of an Eagle or The Killers? I forget who wrote the first one but he wrote of his father`s golden eagle. At one point as a sort of experiment his father gave her a goose egg to hatch. Can`t remember if she was going broody with no mate or what but he gave her the closest substitute I guess (for size and sturdiness?) and she hatched the egg. They helped bridge the gap by making sure it got the right food etc, but she cared for it and it grew up fine. The eagle used to fly around their place, and would dive bomb the big flock of geese. When the goose was turned out with the rest of the geese, the eagle knew which was "hers" and would come swooping down. Her goose would tear off panicking with the others, but she would drop down right next to it.

Very different from being raised together but interesting that at least in that instance the predator could suspend her instinctive drive to kill the prey animal that was "hers".

Hmm. I`m thinking that if a chick was a few days old when the hawk joined the family, and the hawk was fresh-hatched, the chick would probably pick at it until it killed it eventually (like in a day or two). But if the hawk was a little older it could go the other way. Unless the chicken could get away from it. Can`t see them snuggling together unless they were being brooded and couldn`t tell who else was under Mama in the dark. Okay, the whole idea is way too dysfunctional family I think.

Interesting point to ponder though, especially when there are so many examples of strange/unlikely animal friendships.