Are my chickens next?

[Chicken101-07]

I have a coop with a run they can access any time they want,it has chicken wire all around,today I saw what I think was a hawk,quite white with red spots all over it,just chilling in top of the coop,I went outside and it flew away as soon as it saw me, 15 minutes later it was in the same spot again so I just left it there,I let the chickens out to free range their daily hour,they didn't last the first 10 minutes when I saw it swoop down,I thought it had grabbed a hen but it was a poor squirrel I'm pretty sure,not missing any hens and it carried something hairy off the ground when it took off,I immediately put the flock in,I haven't lost any adult chickens to predators,so should i keep letting them out every day or not?will it back?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's entirely up to you. Everything eats chickens. You have to weight your risks, and if you are willing to take them or not. Sometimes one chicken goes missing, other times all of them.

Chicken wire isn't sturdy enough to keep out some predators. So you may want to evaluate the strength of your coop and run.

 

[TheChickenHole]

Use hardware cloth of 1/2 inch or less. https://www.google.com/search?q=har...3.69i57j0l7.7398j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8