Chase, capture or kill?

[Athenasjustice]

I have an issue with a hawk. We just moved to our new house and this thing is killing my babies and has demolished a couple of my hens. I even had a sick hen in a cage and it got ahold of her.......pulled her through the wire and stripped her from the neck down to her shoulders.

I don't know whats up with it! It acts like its NOT afraid of people! Today I was vacuuming......had the doors open and was playing music pretty loud when it came out of the trees.....flew right by the front door and landed on the grill! It didn't fly off till it saw the gun in my hand. Then it went after one of my hens!

SO, Does anyone know HOW to catch a full grown hawk.......for relocation purposes ONLY! Or are there any TRICKS y'all can share to scare it away? Or, would all that be futile and I just need to take aim? I would prefer NOT to kill it if I can but I'll do what I have to do to save my stock!

ANY ideas will be helpful!

 

[MichiganChicken]

I am new to having chickens and thought a hawk was grabbing my birds but I was not sure. They were new and only about 4 months old but it managed to fly away with one. I have now put netting over the full cage area about 70ft x 12 ft wide. He tried again the other day and slammed into the net and ended up getting thrown off the net like a sling shot and did three flips and landed on the ground. He ended up flying away and sitting in a tree for about three hours.

Today I had a smaller hawk try the same thing and he ended up knocked out on the ground for about 5 min and then flew off in a bit of a daze. So my thought is put up some netting ............... it has worked for me for sure.

 

[bobbi-j]

I would call my local wildlife conservation officer before attempting to catch and relocate. Killing is illegal - they're federally protected. Can you keep your chickens in a coop or run for a few days? That could discourage it from hanging around.

 

[seminolewind]

I would build a pen that is enclosed top and sides with hardware cloth.

 

[centrarchid]

What kind of hawk is it?

Better confinement would work. Dog or full sized full adult rooster might work.

 

[Folly's place]

You need to confine your birds in a PREDATOR PROOF pen for a fer weeks, until the hawk looks elsewhere. Adult full-sized birds are pretty safe out there; babies aren't, My worst predators have been racoons and possoms, not hawks. Small cages are death traps; the bird needs to be untouchable from all sides. Bitter experience!!! Mary

 

[Folly's place]

P.S. All raptors are federally protected, UNTOUCHABLE. Thank God coons and possoms aren't! Mary

 

[littleoak]

Hawks are predators that are protected for some reason. If it falls dead get rid of it and tell no one.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Give it a good squirt with your hose (does it have a high pressure setting) that would def. warn it off...

 

[CAjerseychick]

Wow just tested my hawk reaction (sorry not with hose I was in the run area)- have decided to pretend to work by doing my typing out in the run area (its our backyard with a big oak tree and small deck/ramp extending out over it)-- and a new Hawk came to visit-- I think a juvenile red tail b/c it looks just like the big one that visits but smaller-- I was lucky in that I bolted out from under the deck waving my arms and threw a rock into the tree next to it and it took off! Close call... Just watched my young (12 week old roo) scare off a greedy Blue Jay but not sure he is ready for a Hawk yet (they all took cover when the Hawk came)even if he is jersey giant....Well back to work.... have to keep pushing little Giants off my laptop...