PerturbedPanther
Chirping
I got my first ducks and chickens about May/June last year and have been free-ranging them all day everyday since. They are only locked up at night, before it starts getting dark out. Over the past couple months, I have lost 3 ducks but didn't think much of it because they were all cripples or runts that liked to wander too far from the main group; I assumed the hawk had grabbed them.
I have seen this hawk close up, it is a small one, barely the size of my full grown drake. It once tried to grab one of my duck hens while I was sitting barely 10ft away, but the duck fought with it and gave it a hard time until I chased it off. She wasn't even injured when I checked her afterwards.
Our property is surrounded by woodland but is mostly bare otherwise. The closest undergrowth is well over 50ft away from where my ducks usually play, practically in the middle of the property. When I came home from work on Wednesday, my drake was missing. He is fully grown and never by himself, his hens and sons are always with him. Thursday morning, I found his head. That's it, just his head. He was killed smack dab in the middle of the property, in broad daylight, and the only evidence left behind was his head. The head itself was intact and unharmed, the bones of his neck were still attached but had been picked clean. There were no feathers or other remains, only a small bit of blood where the head had been sitting.
I have heard that hawks will rip off heads, but would the neck still be attached? I have seen piles of feathers up in the hayloft of the barn, from when the hawk goes after the pigeons that roost in there, but I didn't see anything like that where the duck was presumably killed.
I also find it weird that only ducks are being taken, I haven't lost a single chicken except to rats in December, which I quickly dealt with.
I have seen this hawk close up, it is a small one, barely the size of my full grown drake. It once tried to grab one of my duck hens while I was sitting barely 10ft away, but the duck fought with it and gave it a hard time until I chased it off. She wasn't even injured when I checked her afterwards.
Our property is surrounded by woodland but is mostly bare otherwise. The closest undergrowth is well over 50ft away from where my ducks usually play, practically in the middle of the property. When I came home from work on Wednesday, my drake was missing. He is fully grown and never by himself, his hens and sons are always with him. Thursday morning, I found his head. That's it, just his head. He was killed smack dab in the middle of the property, in broad daylight, and the only evidence left behind was his head. The head itself was intact and unharmed, the bones of his neck were still attached but had been picked clean. There were no feathers or other remains, only a small bit of blood where the head had been sitting.
I have heard that hawks will rip off heads, but would the neck still be attached? I have seen piles of feathers up in the hayloft of the barn, from when the hawk goes after the pigeons that roost in there, but I didn't see anything like that where the duck was presumably killed.
I also find it weird that only ducks are being taken, I haven't lost a single chicken except to rats in December, which I quickly dealt with.
