supervised free-ranging - can you truly protect from hawks?

[2Old2Crow]

I guess I lived the high life. We have an abundance of red tail hawks. Not once did they ever mess with my orpingtons. And they free ranged all day. They did however, decimate our dove population.

 

[Folly's place]

When you have a hawk visitation, keep your birds in their safe coop and covered run for at least two weeks, until that hawk moves on elsewhere. Most will return every three days or so, and having these chicks out then is a bad idea.
Most of my hawk problems have been with young birds like yours, and bantams. Usually here it's been Cooper's hawks, although I haven't seen every attack every time to be sure.
Once the flock witnesses a hawk attack, the survivors will be more careful. That doesn't help that first victim though.
Having places to hide help too, and the right adult chickens, either wise hens or a good rooster, make a difference.
Training and fencing a dog for this takes time, and is expensive! Maybe two years, property fenced, and maintaining the dog or dogs, not small ones either.
Free ranging is great, but you will have losses! If this is not something you want to deal with, forget about free ranging, and build a nice big run for your birds.
Mary

 

[Avogadro]

We have quite the raptor population in our area, and will see a handful of hawks daily. The flock free ranges (consisting of 3 month old chicks and adults with one rooster), we set up small lean-tos throughout their area so they're never too far from cover (along with natural thicket that they're able to hide in). We've never witnessed a hawk swooping at the girls, and whenever a hawk makes itself known everyone bolts for shelter. My rooster is pretty good at giving the warning call, but when he drops the ball at least one girl will start booking it and the rest follow.

A rather strange strategy that's been working extremely well for us was done unintentionally. One night when I was bringing the egg basket in I set it down to secure a gate, and in those few minutes of securing the gate my mind wandered far enough to where the thought of the full egg basket was completely lost. In the morning my partner quipped how the local crows loved my offering. GAH! However, since leaving a full egg basket to the crows (I'm sure there's some bad luck in store for me having offered a symbol of fertility to an omen of death...), they've been hanging around the property and dive bombing any hawks that get close to the coop! It's an excellent security force!

 

[Aunt Angus]

I've had to chase off hawks - Coopers, primarily, though we have Red Shouldered hawks around. I beaned one with an egg, squirted one with a hose, and used a laser pointer to scare them. I do supervised free ranging. And when I say supervised, I mean supervised. I follow the chickens around and look at the sky. But I'm a lil crazy.

All craziness aside, I now have a rooster. He's a bantam, but he does a great job watching the sky, and I've seen him run off my mom's rottweiler. That roo isn't afraid of anything. I highly recommend a rooster. It will give you a little bit of peace.

 

[centrarchid]

My favorite is the American Game rooster, although you can have only one. Mine are very good around people.

A rooster being a problem can be a function of genetics and / or how raised / treated even as an adult. A lot of people may not be well suited for roosters as will create monsters in relatively short order.

 

[Aunt Angus]

My favorite is the American Game rooster, although you can have only one. Mine are very good around people.

A rooster being a problem can be a function of genetics and / or how raised / treated even as an adult. A lot of people may not be well suited for roosters as will create monsters in relatively short order.

Very true. There doesn't seem to be a "nice" breed, only "nice" individual birds. But there are lots of articles about them on BYC ( I'm thinking of Shadrach's, of course).

 

[centrarchid]

Very true. There doesn't seem to be a "nice" breed, only "nice" individual birds. But there are lots of articles about them on BYC ( I'm thinking of Shadrach's, of course).

Shadrach's arrangement very different from most backyard situations, and even different from most barnyards in the US. He has an actual habitat that provides most of the birds need, including cover. Unless shown differently, most backyard settings are designed to accommodate a lawn mower or have a lots of wooded area that does not provide much in the way of cover.

I would like to see pictures of the OP's area for the free-range setting to see what options are best suited.

 

[Folly's place]

My last hawk episode was this spring. First, a Belgian d'Uccle pullet found dead, from what looked like a hawk attack. All birds locked in for a planned two or more weeks. Then three days later, my bantam EE rooster (loved him!) escaped past me when i went to the coop, and took off towards the barn. No catching him, and still didn't want to let the flock outside too.
I found him dead with a Cooper's hawk standing on him later that day.
At least it was obvious who was hunting my chickens! Nobody else got out (or wanted to!) for the next two weeks, and that hawk hasn't been back.
Brad was a larger bantam, slightly over 2 pounds, and generally smart and careful. He was no match for this hawk!
Mary

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

Everyone’s location and management is different so one’s experience with hawks or other predators is going to be different than another. I believe that there are far more hawks around in some areas and probably most areas than most realize. With the protected status of them and competition from other predators the concept of any predator being preferential to a certain species of prey animals is not likely, they are opportunistic looking for what ever they can find. There are quite a few species of them and the they can occupy quite a range of habitats. On a drive to a stockyards one morning I saw three red tailed hawks sitting on fence or utility poles within a mile of each other . I’m not disputing anyone’s experience that has had little or no predation issues, I just want to advise those that are new to raising/keeping chickens or who are newly trying out free ranging that the predators to chickens are many and also hard to completely safeguard against even under the best of conditions.

 

[Havi Hoagie]

We have quite the raptor population in our area, and will see a handful of hawks daily. The flock free ranges (consisting of 3 month old chicks and adults with one rooster), we set up small lean-tos throughout their area so they're never too far from cover (along with natural thicket that they're able to hide in). We've never witnessed a hawk swooping at the girls, and whenever a hawk makes itself known everyone bolts for shelter. My rooster is pretty good at giving the warning call, but when he drops the ball at least one girl will start booking it and the rest follow.

A rather strange strategy that's been working extremely well for us was done unintentionally. One night when I was bringing the egg basket in I set it down to secure a gate, and in those few minutes of securing the gate my mind wandered far enough to where the thought of the full egg basket was completely lost. In the morning my partner quipped how the local crows loved my offering. GAH! However, since leaving a full egg basket to the crows (I'm sure there's some bad luck in store for me having offered a symbol of fertility to an omen of death...), they've been hanging around the property and dive bombing any hawks that get close to the coop! It's an excellent security force!

That's so wild. Glad to hear your loss became a gain in the long run!