Best bodyguard?

[animals1981]

owls eat hawks, put a owl decoy up and move it around

 

[animals1981]

also feed crows eggs and peanuts they will attack hawks non stop. I saw 2 crows save a whole colony of egrets by attacking the hawk he aborted his attack.

 

[animals1981]

one more thing, EGYPTIAN GEESE will beat up hawks and even attack hawks on their nest!! YEs they will ruin a fierce hawk like a goshawks nest and not care about the attacking parents. Check it up on youtube.

 

[animals1981]

If you can, then post a picture of actual hawks on or near nest. Nesting within 50 yards, the adults are not likely to hunt your chickens.

Species ID very important on this. Red-shouldered which are much more likely to nest in close proximity to human habitation are going to be an asset, even when it comes to Coopers Hawks.

You realize red shoulders are bigger than coopers hawks? Getting more hawks is a disaster waiting to happen when they figure out how easy it is to kill a chicken.

Why not use crows, or even owls who hunt at night.

 

[animals1981]

Also red tails are the strongest hawks, they eat/kill any other hawk species they can get. Only eagles and owls eat them. OTher hawks mob them and falcons hit them hard, but end of the day if they get a chance they will kill any hawk. Thats why other hawks attack red tails because the red tails will ruin their nest.

 

[animals1981]

Get big tom cats, hawks dont like to land in areas where a 10 pound carnivore is walking around. I know some don't care and are fearless. But interactions on the ground will happen eventually and the hawk will be smarter about it. But geese and wild type turkey would be best IMHO

 

[animals1981]

 

[bbond]

Thank you so much for all the ideas!

 

[centrarchid]

Stick to considering species present and avoid sensationalism. Smaller hawk defending breeding effort prevails most of time. Same with crows.