A Hawk Is Killing Our Chickens. What should I do?

[Geena]

It IS actually/factually true, hawks were around a long time before chickens were domesticated, pray tell HOW did they manage that IF chickens were their natural/main diet??????????

Context always matters IOW

Well.... if you want to get down to brass tacks, chickens are not a "natural" part of our diet either, since they are not indigenous to North America.
But they are here now, and they are part of our diet, as well as that of dogs, cats, hawks, owls, foxes, etc.

 

[Aceoky]

Well, We keep them, feed them, shelter them, the other animals (except for BOP) can easily be dealt with IF they want to try for free chicken dinners (as was already discussed in length no less) the reality is most hawks don't target chickens, they hunt for wild birds, and other wild natural food, the hawks who DO (no it's not natural) are lazy and the exception according to the experts . To be blunt before the Feds decided to "protect them" they were not feeding on chickens those who decided to try either got killed or learned the fear of mankind. There are still folks who do that (illegally) when they have other (and legal ) options, which some of those I've bothered to mention.

Still the point is you do NOT have to let hawks eat/kill your entire flock, there are some legal ways to deter them and even scare them away for good (until new ones come along and get educated themselves) I really can't remember ever seeing brass tacks come to think of it

 

[NashvilleLuLu]

A good electric fence is usually plenty for the 'coons, 'yotes etc. etc. etc. , even a covered run is not always enough for hawks........ the point IS you do all you can do and they still persist (against their nature) to target folk's backyard (often quite small flocks) . NO it's not "their fault" this happens, the protecting of certain BOP despite them being overly aggressive and doing tens of thousands in damage to livestock IS the real problem. The time for "unlimited protection" (which is really not accurate as it IS possible to get kill permits in very limited circumstances) is over (or should be) .

BTW please show where I even "hinted" to "SSS" , I did the opposite in fact and clearly stated I'm not advocating any illegal activity or tactics, then posted some legal alternatives that actually work in placing the natural fear of man back into wild BOP. This is nothing new to me, we have raised large flocks for well over 3-4 decades and now have > 60 chickens currently.

ETA:

Also (as you pointed out) the BOP - Are protected; ironically the other predators we deal with are NOT protected, we can shoot them, trap them - dispose of the problem critters-- unlike the BOP issue . You can "secure them" very well and still persistent BOP will upset them try to kill & eat them. Unlike some (including you it seems) I feel bad for those losing most or all their small flocks to these hawks, thus I pointed out it doesn't have to be that way there are legal methods to educate them we are not running an all you can eat free chicken buffet .

I don't know what "SSS" stands for. But I did some research and some states do allow you to kill a hawk, any BOP, or endangered species if it is killing your livestock. You just have to get a permit from the DOW or whatever the governing body is in your state.

That being said, we don't want to kill anything. We had a small flock to begin with and are now down to two hens. They are incredibly depressed this morning and won't come out the loft in the coop, which is fine because the first thing we saw this morning when we let the dogs out was that f-ing hawk. So I made a small dish of sunflower seeds and grapes for the ladies and left it in the coop. I think they will be on lock for a couple of weeks until we get some goats and/or a guardian dog.

 

[Aceoky]

Shoot, Shovel, Shut up = 3 S ; yes sometimes you MIGHT get a permit, but even then only after you've shown you've taken all the other steps we have outlined in several hawk threads. IF you get the permit, it's limited in both time & scope , so it's not as some seem to think it is even if you manage to get a permit. IF you actually believe all you have to do is ask for a permit to get one then by all means give it a try and report back.....

ETA:

I'm so sorry for your loss, I'm sorry your flock is so small now, I don't blame you for keeping them up. Hope you have better times ahead in the new year!

 

[Geena]

Well, We keep them, feed them, shelter them, the other animals (except for BOP) can easily be dealt with IF they want to try for free chicken dinners (as was already discussed in length no less) the reality is most hawks don't target chickens, they hunt for wild birds, and other wild natural food, the hawks who DO (no it's not natural) are lazy and the exception according to the experts . To be blunt before the Feds decided to "protect them" they were not feeding on chickens those who decided to try either got killed or learned the fear of mankind. There are still folks who do that (illegally) when they have other (and legal ) options, which some of those I've bothered to mention.

Still the point is you do NOT have to let hawks eat/kill your entire flock, there are some legal ways to deter them and even scare them away for good (until new ones come along and get educated themselves) I really can't remember ever seeing brass tacks come to think of it

Of course we need to protect our chickens, that goes without saying.

A hawk taking chickens is neither unnatural or lazy, those are human concepts. It's simply making good use of what is available. It's trying to get sustenance, without expending too much energy or risking serious injury, as it should. There is no need to either vilify or humanize predators, they are only doing what they are biologically compelled to do, that's all.

 

[Aceoky]

Um NO - it has nothing to do with "human concepts" nor "humanizing predators" - there are too many hawks hunting wildlife (you know natural prey) to "cry" natural behavior, simply put it's not natural at all to prey on captive birds. it IS, "easy" therefore lazy birds will do it while the vast majority won't.

You seem to ignore the facts and want to believe what you wish to believe; that is your prerogative, instead of blaming the rogue predator you want to blame the farmer, chicken raiser etc. They spend the money, the time make the commitment and TRY to protect their flock(s) as much as possible. The blame is on the predators who instead of doing what they've done for centuries decide "easy' what they'll do , again not so long ago that was a death sentence, making it even more rare as the offenders ceased to exist in a short time, now with FED protections they've only grown more bold and offenders breed that trait more often than not.

 

[Geena]

You seem to ignore the facts and want to believe what you wish to believe; that is your prerogative, instead of blaming the rogue predator you want to blame the farmer, chicken raiser etc. .

I'm ignoring the facts? LOL
There's no "blame" to be had on either side here. We like to raise chickens, predators like to eat them, that's life. If we want to keep our chickens safe we need to take the measures necessary to protect them, the end.

 

[Aceoky]

Most predators are NOT - Fed protected..........unlike BOP - which it seems you ignore as well as much of the discussion , unless you've simply not bothered to read the entire thread. At any rate it's not anyone's fault for raising chickens and it's certainly NOT their fault when they lose their entire flock to hawks (or much of their flocks even) Hawks don't NEED to prey on captive birds that is a choice and a lazy one at that, you can pretend it's not so , it won't change things.

At any rate I can simply agree to disagree.

 

[Geena]

which it seems you ignore as well as much of the discussion

I hadn't planned to comment on other aspects of the discussion, only on the part of your post that I quoted, sorry, I thought that was clear.

 

[Banditbear]

I thought I'd post this picture for your review.
It pretty clearly shows that hawks will even enter a coop to kill chickens.

I heard the racket and found this hawk inside the coop. He stopped the attack when I came to the gate. I let it get real uncomfortable for a few minutes, then went in and ran it out. Thinking that I'd cured it... But alas, I just went and found a dead chicken with a hawk on it about an hour ago.

It doesn't seem that they are dissuaded by entering an enclosure that even has a roof on it.

If they want your chickens, they get them.