Red Tailed Hawk - Chicken Predators - How To Protect Your Chickens From Hawks

My guineas have flogged some small hawks. The hawks are larger, but the guineas will outnumber and do some synchronized jump kicks all at the same time.

The suggestion of dogs can also be good. We have taught our dogs from the time they're young to chase off birds of prey by running at the birds yelling and waving our arms and the dogs soon realize, we are not ok with the swooping birds.

Another thing that I don't see here that was recently recommended to me by a farmer in my area is to put up a kestrel hawk house. They are small and very territorial and will keep out larger hawks, but not large enough to harm the chickens. I haven't done this myself and am wondering if anyone else has experience with this before we try.

A good article describing the Red Tailed Hawk but they do not get discouraged easily based on what I have seen. One had nerve to fly into the pen when I was in the yard. My 30 lb dog (mutt) started barking and went after it. The hawk got annoyed and started chasing after her then made a grab at my cockerel. Thank you so much for the rest of the information you provided. I had no idea capturing and killing a hawk was illegal. You saved my life from jail.

I’ve had hawks around and this is a good article to read. My favorite hen was attacked and I had no idea what to do! Thanks to byc and these articles my hen survived!

Some good general info. Based on personal experience, hanging shiny objects did not discourage the hawks I've encountered. A covered run is best with plenty of hiding places for the chickens to get under when free ranging. Another thing that worked well for me was to become aware of when hawks were most likely to be after my birds...early morning and late afternoon were hawk-intensive times for me so I only free ranged my birds at other times.

A bit generalized. Going into more detail about other hawk species would be helbup

In general, well written. Could go into further depth on species that may be more predatory towards chickens. As some hawks are too small to attack chickens. Other than that maybe some more pictures of the most likely hawks to be encountered.