SamLockwood
Songster
- Sep 29, 2022
- 468
- 956
- 166
Two of the four chickens I've had killed by hawks were black. I've also seen hawks attack lone crows.
Guardian animals & plenty of cover and hiding places help. So does limiting free-ranging in late winter and early spring (which is when the bulk of my predator encounters happen).
It really helps if you have wild birds that nest in the area: right now the hawks get no easy breaks. If the crows don't attack them the smaller birds that are raising their chicks do. For instance one of my roosters sounded the alarm (his croaking "whaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!") and I looked up in time to see a hawk with a cloud of small birds swirling around it, pecking and swooping at it and chasing it out of the area.
Guardian animals & plenty of cover and hiding places help. So does limiting free-ranging in late winter and early spring (which is when the bulk of my predator encounters happen).
It really helps if you have wild birds that nest in the area: right now the hawks get no easy breaks. If the crows don't attack them the smaller birds that are raising their chicks do. For instance one of my roosters sounded the alarm (his croaking "whaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!") and I looked up in time to see a hawk with a cloud of small birds swirling around it, pecking and swooping at it and chasing it out of the area.
