what chicken breeds can hawks take?

[KYBOY]

We have to cover our runs and barely let chickens free roam at all. We live in rural Eastern,Ky. In the head of a holler. The hawks are bad but the worst are the huge great horned owls we have in abundance. They will light on the ground and walk into a chicken coop if its no locked up..

 

[Clash]

I found this page after losing a Rhode Island Red (About 6 lbs), I went to lunch on Monday after feeding the hens. When I got home about 2 hours later, I found Nugget laying on the ground, without her head or neck... it was completely gone, there were no tracks in the snow indicating any ground predators, and it would be hard for any ground predators to get into my chicken pen anyways. So, I learned that a hawk probably killed her and cut off her head at the neck and carried it to it's nest. As I've been reading, I've learned that hawks are afraid of Crows and people who have black hens like Australorps don't seem to have their chickens bothered. I have a black sex-link and a black Jersey Giant, but I'm guessing Nugget was out pecking at the feed without her sisters and was an easy target. I've hung a couple CDs over the chicken coop to blow in the wind as a deterrent to the hawks. I have an Owl decoy with a movable head to put out on a post in the spring. The ground is too frozen right now to put in the post.

As I was reading, one thing that stood out to me was other people losing Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons... I was wondering if some breeds are seen as food more often than others. Does anyone keep track of which breeds of chicken are most often attacked by hawks? Are black colored hens the safest?

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have had 2 taken in about 20 years. One was a bantam hen, one was a blue copper rooster.

 

[Anime2lover]

I found this page after losing a Rhode Island Red (About 6 lbs), I went to lunch on Monday after feeding the hens. When I got home about 2 hours later, I found Nugget laying on the ground, without her head or neck... it was completely gone, there were no tracks in the snow indicating any ground predators, and it would be hard for any ground predators to get into my chicken pen anyways. So, I learned that a hawk probably killed her and cut off her head at the neck and carried it to it's nest. As I've been reading, I've learned that hawks are afraid of Crows and people who have black hens like Australorps don't seem to have their chickens bothered. I have a black sex-link and a black Jersey Giant, but I'm guessing Nugget was out pecking at the feed without her sisters and was an easy target. I've hung a couple CDs over the chicken coop to blow in the wind as a deterrent to the hawks. I have an Owl decoy with a movable head to put out on a post in the spring. The ground is too frozen right now to put in the post.

As I was reading, one thing that stood out to me was other people losing Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons... I was wondering if some breeds are seen as food more often than others. Does anyone keep track of which breeds of chicken are most often attacked by hawks? Are black colored hens the safest?

I lost two light colored youngsters to a hawk. Kept the chickens penned up for a while and never saw it again. Also don't let juries free range in my yard anymore.

 

[McChooky]

Cover your runs to protect your flock from aerial predators and wild birds .You don't want them to be exposed to bird droppings( high risk of catching the Avian flu)Chickens that are free ranged are the most vulnerable.

 

[BayBuzzard]

I'm no expert, but I do have many hours with chickens. On the farm I worked on, the hawks had a shopping mall of chickens, maybe 100 birds or so.

And I had a few at home for personal egg stash. Saw more than a handful of hawk attacks. Even a red-tailed hawk will have difficulty flying away with a decent sized chicken. Almost invariably, i found the hawk on top of the chicken, cleaning the breast of the feathers, before it hit the breast meat. Slicing off the head? Have not seen that from a hawk.

Not to say it isnt an air predator, but keep your eyes out for weasels and baby fischers too, terrible little creatures..that can get thru small crevices.

Good luck solving this, and keep us posted.

 

[TwistedTayy]

There are some breeds that are more “aware” of hawks than others. Unfortunately it’s ones that are not known to be friendly. A hawk would have difficulty catching one of my fayoumi but any of my other chickens would be easy game. I put up scare tape around my free range area. I’m confident my two geese prevented attacks too because less than two weeks after I rehomed them, a hawk took my bfs favorite little splash OEGB (killed her and flew off) did the whole thing in front of one of our cameras. Our geese certainly would have attacked a four legged predator (which isn’t to say they would have been successful but they were always watching the sky. One time I was out there and a hawk was flying over a little low for comfort and the two geese let out a different sqwak than normal and all ducks and chickens bolted for cover.

I will be getting some liege fighters for our free range crew as an experiment but if that doesn’t work I’ll be getting another pair of geese (we wound up getting scammed and got two ganders, one Toulouse and one pilgrim from supposedly pure pilgrim eggs)

 

[cmom]

Cover your runs to protect your flock from aerial predators and wild birds .You don't want them to be exposed to bird droppings( high risk of catching the Avian flu)Chickens that are free ranged are the most vulnerable.

I agree. My birds all have large covered pens. No more aerial predators. I still see hawks and occasionally a young bald eagle but they can't get to my birds. Good luck...