Are white chickens like Delaware more likely to be caught by hawks?

[johndeerelover]

Thanks for all the replies. We live in a wooded area, so I haven't ever seen a red tailed around. I have seen a cooper at a neighbor's bird feeder once. I have had Marans and welsummers for years and never had a attach. Let's hope for the best!

 

[williatn]

Thanks for all the replies. We live in a wooded area, so I haven't ever seen a red tailed around. I have seen a cooper at a neighbor's bird feeder once. I have had Marans and welsummers for years and never had a attach. Let's hope for the best!

We are about 60 per cent wooded in the backyard. We never have a problem when there are leaves on the trees.

 

[Folly's place]

My bantam Belgan d'Uccles, especially youngsters, have been the birds I've lost most often to hawks. My big birds have been attacked very rarely, and again, mostly as younglings. I have all colors, and the white Chanteclers have been untouched.
Mary

 

[Kessel23]

I think it depends more on breed than color, some breeds of chicken are just more watchful and cautious.

 

[drumstick diva]

I think breeds like silkies & polish tend to be first to go because with big crests, beards, etc., their vision is impaired. They have a better chance of escaping if the crests , etc. are cut back so they can see clearly.

 

[happyfrenchman]

My black copper Marans suffer a couple of attacks a year. I know the hawks are capable of much more attacking because when I had pigeons, I had them buzzing in every day I let them out. They were multicolored and it didn't seem like the hawk cared the color as much as whether he could catch it. The hawk is interested in segregating a bird alone. The bird that turns left when the others turn right is the one that will get attacked. I do not think it matters the color....but who can say?

I would say in general, most hawks hesitate before going for a standard sized chicken. It is big and not their natural prey. (I say this because they did not hesitate for a second with the pigeons). The hawk loves bantams and young chickens. Some of the chickens that have feathers obscuring their vision to some degree. I have heard they are hawk favorites.

I know certain breeds are more gamey and safer to Free Range.... Rhode Island Reds are in my experience pretty good free rangers but I see others have lost some. I do not know anything about Delawares. I would go to the breed section and ask the Delaware people. I can say that my black Marans have been attacked at about the average rate of my overall experiences with chickens. (I never lost a Rhode Island Red).

 

[RiverOtter]

My old farm, we had a pair of red tailed hawks and a pair of great horned owls nesting there on alternate years (how they worked that out, I've no idea, but we'd see one pair one year and the other the next, 7 years running) and they seemed to like red birds best. So did the local fox.

We'd lose the occasional half-grown bird to foolishness and more than one rooster to heroics, but over and over and over, any predator around would grab a red bird, to the point I stopped keeping them.

My white leghorns and leghorn crosses, never lost one. Possibly because Leghorns are so alert and active, but their white feathers never seemed to point them out to predators the way the red birds seemed to.

 

[williatn]

My old farm, we had a pair of red tailed hawks and a pair of great horned owls nesting there on alternate years (how they worked that out, I've no idea, but we'd see one pair one year and the other the next, 7 years running) and they seemed to like red birds best. So did the local fox.

We'd lose the occasional half-grown bird to foolishness and more than one rooster to heroics, but over and over and over, any predator around would grab a red bird, to the point I stopped keeping them.

My white leghorns and leghorn crosses, never lost one. Possibly because Leghorns are so alert and active, but their white feathers never seemed to point them out to predators the way the red birds seemed to.

I agree. I've never had any hawks or other wild animals go after my why white Leghorns either. The only thing I've ever had kill a white chicken was an untrained bird dog. Learned she needed to be on a leash or the chickens in the run pretty quickly.

 

[kwhites634]

Just wondering, I've always had Marans, welsummers which blend into our woods setting. Was thinking about getting Delawares but will they stand out and be found easier by coopers hawks etc? Anyone have any experience with different colors of chickens?

I've lost 3; 2 of them white. The last was after the snow we had several days ago

 

[williatn]

Thanks for all the replies. We live in a wooded area, so I haven't ever seen a red tailed around. I have seen a cooper at a neighbor's bird feeder once. I have had Marans and welsummers for years and never had a attach. Let's hope for the best!

We also live on a largely wooded 4 acre property. The chickens are great at keeping the bug population down, but we have a somewhat open backyard. Most of the hawk attacks (red-tailed in my case, though I've also had Peregrine falcons pass through and wreak havoc) happen when they go from cover to cover. I've also found that the hawks are incredibly adept. I had one chase a chicken into forsythia, and kill it anyway. One thing that has slightly lessened attacks is not maintaining a bird feeder for songbirds and the like. The chickens would eat the mess they create, and the hawk would get them there. I don't think open or wooded matters all that much. If a hawk hadeveloped the chicken hunting skill, they're best left in the run or free ranging when I can check on them every 15 or 20 minutes. (When I'm working in my wood shop, this is not a major burden).