Hawk Questions

[Dnar]

Howdy,

My flock has had some unfortunate hawk encounters over the past couple of months. I ended up expanding the fenced in area to include about an acre of dense forest thinking it would provide some cover and make hawk attacks more difficult to pull off. But unfortunately it seems like hawks can still pull off successful attacks even in dense forest. Now I'm thinking that the dense forest actually makes it harder for the chickens to detect threats in the first place. Does this sound accurate? I've been wanting to clear out most of the yaupon holly and underbrush anyways, but if this was true, it would give me a better excuse to start sooner.

Also, perhaps it's a coincidence, but we didn't have any known hawk attacks until three out of our four roosters were relocated to the freezer. Has anyone else noticed a correlation between multiple roosters and a lower amount of hawk attacks?

Thanks,
Dnar

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Good roosters are very helpful in the hawk battle. As for the actual question: I have no idea. My guess would be that the trees help both chicken and hawk, but perhaps the hawk more.

 

[nuthatched]

Now I'm thinking that the dense forest actually makes it harder for the chickens to detect threats in the first place.

It does make it harder for your birds to see them if there's dense cover overhead. Move them out of the trees and give the open airspace and low to the ground cover like bushes, pallets, chairs.

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between multiple roosters and a lower amount of hawk attacks?

A Roosters job is to monitor the area and sound the alarm if there's a possibility of a threat. Hens do this as well just fine on their own but it's more of the primary focus of roosters.

 

[Dnar]

Thank you both for the helpful comments. Looks like I have some work to do around hawk-proofing.

 

[centrarchid]

Hawk species can be important. Hawks with long tails are generally good at hunting in heavy vegetation and will even chase a chicken on foot. The adult standard sized roosters can be good at turning on the hawk once it is on the ground. Dense cover is not always equal. I look for enough stems close enough so the hawk cannot sustain a flapping flight. Seldom do you see trees growing that densely.

 

[triciayoung]

Some say that if you get a fair amount of Black Australorps, it helps with hawk attacks.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Many people have still lost birds despite have a flock full of black birds. The logic is sound, but it doesn't seem to work in reality.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

I have multiple hawks in the area, since we had 3 days without being above freezing..and several close..a couple of smaller hawks/falcons have been near and I very,very large hawks or larger raptor has swooped overhead the last 2 days. My bantam roo should be a marine in a combat zone, his head is always on a swivel, he spots them long before I do..and he alerts and his girls are gone..we havepasture banana trees bamboo trees ,dirt piles that the birds have literally carved out little caves this summer..some half pieces of large broken culverts when the parish County was redoing roads. They are a tight fit but all my girls can get under..close in we have a couple of cat carriers, the teenage coop is low to the ground 5 inches and I've seen them go under..the barn cats patrol..my roo will go after his girls if they don't move when he alerts ( we have a girl,floof,who daydreams..) anyway I do think it helps that my birds are assorted colors but blend fairly well

 

[Shadrach]

Trees don't in general make good cover for chickens. The Goshawk and some falcons are forest hunters, so knowing the type of hawk/s you have is important.
Dense large bushes, bamboo, large shrubs, hedgerows, etc make much better cover. Chickens seem to like to have cover where they can see out into the open and make foraging trips with cover to run to close at hand.

 

[Isabella6Storm4]

The black bird thing doesnt work. I had a flock consisting of only Lorps and a hawk got like half. Probably the best thing other than a dog is something they can easily run under for cover and a good rooster. He will scream an alarm and most hens will react by running for cover.