Will Hawks attack full grown chickens?

[Trish1974]

Also once saw a Bald Eagle.

The bald eagle may be something to worry about. My neighbor lost his rooster to an immature bald eagle a few years ago, and I've seen YouTube videos of eagle's taking chickens. I live along a river and it seems the eagles come up to the house and gawk at my cats and chickens when the river is flooded, or when the river is frozen. Usually the crows run them off before I can get out there to do it.

 

[CluckingHillFarm]

View attachment 1710056

Nice image of the Red Shoulder Hawk. We have a pair of Red Shoulder Hawks here and they have yet to go after the chickens (knock on wood!!!). Red Tail Hawk and Cooper's Hawk will definitely go after them. Had a Red Tail Hawk try and go after my Pekin Ducks too. Thankfully they were in the run and were unharmed.

 

[HeyHo]

I have a 60 acre pond at my home, and there are several raptor type birds that I see snagging fish. Ospreys I think. Question is, will a hawk attack a full grown chicken?

YES a hawk will attack a full grown chicken! I lost a large barred rock to a Cooper's Hawk this week. The chickens had plenty of cover while free-ranging in the woods and I was only 10 or so feet away. I had thought I was doing everything "right." Of course, she was my favorite snuggler. RIP Coco.

 

[missking2u]

I have a 60 acre pond at my home, and there are several raptor type birds that I see snagging fish. Ospreys I think. Question is, will a hawk attack a full grown chicken?

Yes they will. I had a fairly small hawk come down and try to attack one of my larger hens she is a Plymouth rock. Thankfully my big drake duck ran over and beat the snot out of him. The hawk flew off in a rather confused stupor.
I seem to have a bigger problem with ravens than hawks or eagles. The ravens attack my pullets they just come down and rip their heads off, they don't even eat them its enraging. They also constantly get into my coop and steal the eggs. I put a bunch of gold balls in the coop and now I have golf balls all over the place, the ravens pick them up then drop them trying to break them and eat them.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

They sure will, we had a cooper hawk take down on of our nice sized cochin hens. However they're to heavy for them to fly away with. So they'll eat them right on the ground and fly off when they get full.

 

[paneubert]

Yeah, eagles will eat chickens. This is an extreme and probably somewhat unique case, but a long and interesting article about how one farm adapted to compensate for the losses that they estimate are around FOUR chickens taken by bald eagles per day.

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2016/an-organic-chicken-farm-georgia-has-become-endless