Anyone ever raised a baby hawk W/your poultry?

[1muttsfan]

LOL yea, i knew that part was coming about the protected blah blah lol, it'd just be interesting, I mean, b/c I know alot of animals have that instinct to kill their prey, but you can change and manipulate that, we'd have plenty of squirrels for him LOL

Blah blah, is that really necessary?

 

[centrarchid]

Sorta when I was much younger. Red-tailed hawk not confined but I did interact with it a lot. Could go fishing for it by tieing dead bird or mouse to to end of bait caster and toss bait into yard. Hawk was very people and dog tolerant. It was allowed to consume culls on occasion and giblets in general. Hawk would occasionally stoop at chickens by barn scaring them very well but if it would have landed it would have been killed by same chickens. It did not catch any to my knowledge but systematically looked for song bird nests in a roughly 1/2 mile radius to get chicks out. Same hawk associated with hounds as they went after rats under boards and even some of the doghouses amongst outbuildings. Hawk would perch on doghouse that dogs had rat cornered under and wait for rodent to make break for it. Those dogs were like three stooges and would not notice rat come out so hawk would gingerly glide down, catch rat then hawk would fly up on fence post to eat it. Even when dogs caught rat, hawk eventually got rat to eat since dogs would live it to go after another. Such arrangement was not beneficial to chickens and hawk was exposed to way more chicken born diseases than it should have.

 

[Afewbantams]

We fostered a young rescue owl (he was hit by a car and a rescue person picked him up and tended to him). We only had him to try and get him back to health and hopefully ready to go back into the wild. Our pullets, even though only a few months old were very wary of him, didn't go anywhere near his cage and when he got out once they ran. When out of his cage he never threatened the chickens or quail but they instinctively knew to keep away.

 

[WaterFowl209]

I was thinking today, what IF you were to raise your chickens up with a hawk somehow & they actually got along? Could that even happen I wonder? I mean, b/c then...you'd have a great protector; you could just call in the fighter jet and here she/he comes!!! lol....

Seriously, I wonder if anyone's done this.

That's just silliness or as they say stinking thinkin lol

I can see a baby getting along with hens but only for so long after that natural instincts would come into play and some things such as hawks you can't take that predator and natural habit out of them.

 

[centrarchid]

I am not advocating keeping of any raptor in close proximity with poultry but will not stand by without answering parties with little or no experience, sometimes even on poultry side, saying it will not work because of instincts of hawk. If such were to be done, then it would require someone with considerable knowledge of poultry and falconry and on the falconry side an understanding of raptor behavior that a typical falconer does not normally have use for.

Remember the grey wolf. If not for it I bet would not have been able to domesticate any animals beyond fish and may have had problems defending even planted crops as a well.

 

[aoxa]

Yes, that should work.

Falconers who hunt with hawks and ferrets house the ferrets right next to the hawks. The  ferret is sent down the rabbit hole to chase out the rabbit, and the hawk will take the rabbit and never take the ferret by mistake.

Hawks don't kill for sport, so a well fed hawk isn't going to kill any chickens, whether he was raised with them or not.

A hawk is a very small bird, so it is not going to do any protecting from anything.  Maybe, if it is territorial, it might try to run off another hawk of the same breed and gender as itself. But maybe it would be driven of, itself, because a captive bird would not be as strong as a wild bird.

That murder of crows might drive away hawks, but it will take over the  job of killing chicks and they will steal all the eggs they can reach.  The best protection for your poultry is an adequate pen.

Never had a crow kill a chick. Maybe I'm lucky. I have a ton of them free ranging from week 2 +.

Probably helps that I have grown roosters that are ready to fight as soon as a robin lands to get a worm. The crows never leave the trees.

Anyone know if Cranes will kill chickens?

 

[galanie]

That's very true.
If you want to raise a protecting wild bird - try a murder of crows. They will defend territory against a hawk/eagle. A friend of mine had created nesting spots for crows to settle in around his farm. They took care of the hawk problem.
Or for ground predators, get a Livestock Guardian dog, or a llama. They make great protectors. Depending on your area and the size of the predators, you may need a couple LGDs or llamas.

Do you have any idea how he made the nesting spots, etc. attractive for crows? I ask because I need more crows. At first, they were doing a great job of keeping the hawks away. Now there are more, and more persistent hawks. Just witnessed one this morning hitting my back patio door trying to get a 4 month old EE and earlier, one was chasing the crows off. I've seen as many as four in one large tree in my yard.

I blame the guy next door feeding birds and squirrels. Their population exploded at first and now it's down. The extra predators that had moved in are getting too hungry. I've never had one attack a chicken before this morning that I was aware of. And so far (knocks on wood) I haven't lost one. But the days of that are numbered, I see.

Edit - and yes, this is in the city!

 

[aoxa]

Do you have any idea how he made the nesting spots, etc. attractive for crows? I ask because I need more crows. At first, they were doing a great job of keeping the hawks away. Now there are more, and more persistent hawks. Just witnessed one this morning hitting my back patio door trying to get a 4 month old EE and earlier, one was chasing the crows off. I've seen as many as four in one large tree in my yard.
I blame the guy next door feeding birds and squirrels. Their population exploded at first and now it's down. The extra predators that had moved in are getting too hungry. I've never had one attack a chicken before this morning that I was aware of. And so far (knocks on wood) I haven't lost one. But the days of that are numbered, I see.
Edit - and yes, this is in the city!

I can't remember how many nests he said he had. There was quite a few. Our hawks here are small.. Pretty much the size of a large crow. A murder of crows can take them down easily.

I'm going to say there were over 10 nests. All surrounding his huge property. I am going to see him in a couple weeks and ask him how he did this, and how many actual nests he had put up. He said it worked wonders for him. He was actually fending off against Eagles for the most part. Cooper Hawks are the extent of the hawks here. We have a lot of bald eagles. They even take out small dogs and cats if you aren't careful.

I don't live near any eagle nests (thank GOD!) so I don't need to promote any crows. They naturally nest in the woods we have. The Eagles usually with a relative closeness to water, so we don't worry about them.

However, we see a lot of cranes, seagulls and sea type birds pass overhead. Even Blue Herons. I am curious if they would eat/attack a chicken. They are just so large!

 

[centrarchid]

I have seen crows nest in as groups in a variety of places but the only pattern I see is they like stands of trees that are about 30 feet tall. Also more than one species is involved and even within a given species, nesting preference may vary with location.

 

[aoxa]

I have seen crows nest in as groups in a variety of places but the only pattern I see is they like stands of trees that are about 30 feet tall.  Also more than one species is involved and even within a given species, nesting preference may vary with location.

They were attached to trees. Not sure how high up, though definitely at least 30 feet.

Not saying he was expecting every nest to be occupied, but a few were. He did mention that they stole eggs from his ducks. His chickens were not free ranged. It was his geese and ducks that were. Apparently the eagles took out his African geese with ease.