A hawk has lifted our chickens into the air what should I do??

[BigFuzzball]

Very interesting reading and loving the humour........my wife reckons "I'm going slightly mad" (love you Freddie !) talking to our girls who seem to listen but then laugh at you anyway and do exactly what they want (example of one giving the 'thanks for sharing your thoughts but you always forget who's in charge hooman !' look is Lexi in my profile pic !).
Anyone any idea as to whether a Red Kite could lift an 'average' chicken please seeing as we see those very regularly ?
I say 'average' as we have a 'Buff Sussex' that lifting is not doing my lower-back Osteoarthritis any good what so ever.....

 

[Chicalina]

We do see Red Kites occasionally circling high above, usually being harassed by Crows - am assuming Kites would be big enough to lift a chicken ??

I'm not that far south from you and we get loads of red kites here, plus a few buzzards.

Kites feed primarily on carrion, roadkill etc but will take smaller chickens and rabbits if they are hungry and they have enough open space to swoop down, grab and take off again. They prefer easier food that is already dead.

I've got chicks so have placed loads of crap around my garden for my birds to hide under and to make any landing/taking off space too small. Garden chairs, wire fence panels leaned against them, and strung some string over an open bit between trees. So far so good.

I keep only bantams atm and the kites have never taken any adults. I just took extra measures because I had chicks, and there are too many birds to keep them confined in the runs for now.

 

[cmom]

That's good to know about the hawks. Thank you. I'm sure my girls will adjust in time, but you are correct, they certainly do not understand. When I approach the run they holler at me and call me names. I tell them, "It was a good day. None of you got eaten. You're welcome!" But they still complain... they don't appreciate my humor. Most folks don't etiher...

Put a flock block in with them. That will keep them occupied.

 

[cmom]

Very interesting reading and loving the humour........my wife reckons "I'm going slightly mad" (love you Freddie !) talking to our girls who seem to listen but then laugh at you anyway and do exactly what they want (example of one giving the 'thanks for sharing your thoughts but you always forget who's in charge hooman !' look is Lexi in my profile pic !).
Anyone any idea as to whether a Red Kite could lift an 'average' chicken please seeing as we see those very regularly ?
I say 'average' as we have a 'Buff Sussex' that lifting is not doing my lower-back Osteoarthritis any good what so ever.....

I don't know about red kites, here in Florida we have swallow tail kites and I have only seen them flying overhead. More so in the spring.

 

[Kaw]

Bird netting over the run has worked fine so far for me. I have a small enough netting that I haven’t had birds get stuck in it, but I did have a baby robin fall out of the nest and not be able to figure out how to get off the net. My biggest problem is leaves and twigs getting stuck in it because my run is under a tree.

Now that it is Fall, we have leaves and twigs caught too, as well as a plant growing on it (The devil’s mile?). I have been thinking about how to ask Hubby to replace the netting in the soring. I think less area coverage will work for us and less work for him.

 

[Kaw]

The killing of random song birds in addition to the material breaking down and becoming a crop hazard are the main reasons I have moved away from this stuff... I still find pieces of it to this day on occasion.

If I was going to use this.. I would consider using standard galvanized poultry wire (as opposed to the soft stretchy material envision as the netting).. I haven't YET found any random dead animals caused by chicken wire.. to keep aerial (not ground) predators out.. Depending on the type of tree coverage, it may require maintenance to keep debris free.

Both glad and unfortunate to hear others have experienced the song bird issue. I think the rigidity built into wire verses netting makes the difference for wildlife being able to escape verses getting more tangled. And it may rust eventually.. but is unlikely to scatter my pasture in tiny fragments.. I would say over all, *maybe* more natural..

Stretch that netting tight though.. and plan it to last for no more than a few seasons, more or less depending on weather and other forces.. and it can work well. Thank you for sharing and letting me also!

I hate that it killed a sing bird (we set the ither free). The one that died was caught in a tangke where the extra hung down after draping over the raiking, on the deck. I didn’t think of it!
I also did not think about it just breaking dien and falling a oart. We will take it down before then Thank you for replying with that information.

 

[CrazyTownChick]

Thanks for all the info. I caught Ms. Red Tailed Hawk perched on the fence of our run this morning, and the girls were trapped on the other side of the coop, away from the door... we're making new hidey places out of old doors tomorrow, and heck, we'll give the owl a try. We DO have CDs tied on a string hanging in the run - someone said that helps blind the raptors? And we have blinking red lights on the outside at night, assuming that helps scare away night predators? Anyone else ever tried that?

Hello, we use red blinking predator eyes on the long side and back side of our run/coop. You place them about a foot up off the ground on the outside of your coop/run. They are designed to keep the ground predators, like foxes (we have many), raccoons, opossum, maybe weasels out. The predator eyes, to my knowledge only work for ground predators. They do work well to keep the foxes and raccoons away though.
Flying predators like hawks and owls don't give a hoot (haha) about blinking lights and won't be deterred, they're too low. All of our coop, run and west wing (extended run) are covered to protect from flying predators. A metal roof on coop, a vinyl corrugated roof on run, and two overlapping tarps on extended run. We have so many hawks and birds of prey we don't take chances.
We completely supervise free range time (hour at a time, once a week) because we've had a hawk dive bomb across the flock while they were out there. The are bold and fearless when hungry. Sounds like you've got the right idea, keep it up!

 

[Willow2253]

Now that it is Fall, we have leaves and twigs caught too, as well as a plant growing on it (The devil’s mile?). I have been thinking about how to ask Hubby to replace the netting in the soring. I think less area coverage will work for us and less work for him.

Winter sets in pretty quick here and the chickens don’t like snow so we’re actually planning to replace the netting with a hard roof in the next week or two. It’s so full of leaves I can’t walk under it anymore.