Assume the Position!

[Lisamairey]

My chickens are really big and fat. Even my Rhode Island Reds are heftier than those I see in pictures. Will they get to a size that a hawk will avoid? (I have two Chinese geese that the hawks don't bother at all.) For the most part, the chickens move from scrub to tree and are rarely completely exposed. I imagine this is instinct. Cover keeping them safe. Will you curtail their free-ranging during the winter when predators are extra hungry?

 

[azygous]

Winter was when I lost a young hen to a red-tail hawk. She was close to cover, too, but the hawk swooped down and broke her neck, then ate portions of her face. The hawk almost never tries to fly off with his kill, but eats it on the spot. However, it's typical that hawks don't eat all that much of a large kill like a chicken. Small prey such as mice they swallow whole.

This hawk was calmly sitting on a wood pile eight feet from my dead hen when I ran to the run to see what all the commotion was about. I found the rest of the flock had run back into the run and were all hiding under the coop in a far corner.

Your flock being large and heavy will not protect them from a predator from the sky.

 

[Lisamairey]

Thank you for sharing. I'm so sorry about your hen. I will be very careful.