chicken hawks

[docmauney]

Any advice to protect the girls from the mean ole hawk? I've lost 2 light colored ones now. will be going with dark breeds from now on...and I put a net over their kinda free range area

 

[ChirpnBern]

Get a mean ole rooster? Color probably doesn`t matter, a hawk will see them no matter what color they are. Do you know what kind of hawk? The net will probably keep it off them if the hawk can`t fly under it to get to them. OMG, you`re reminding me of something I`d forgotten. Years ago we knew some people with chickens and whatnot. Once a redtail hawk flew right inside their henhouse after the chickens. Their kids happened to be in the yard at the time and shut the door on the hawk and caught it. They somehow boxed or crated it and took it to a wildlife rehab place. It didn`t need rehab, just relocation away from their chickens! And actually they probably should have gotten in trouble for messing with it.
Anyway, good luck with the net.

 

[docmauney]

I've got a 3y/o red with 2.5 in spurs that is very protective over the hens. What makes me think our local red tail likes the light colored ones is that I see it all the time and it never pays any mind to the red sex links or even the smaller black game hens...the day after I got a mature buff hen, she got ate!! It happened as we came home from church...my wife was in heels and grabbed a rake n took off after the thing as it pecked away at "honey". I ran in and grabbed the 12ga (I'm protective too). My 16 y/o drives up n mom/dad are standing there with a rake and a shotgun yelling...he said it looked like an episode of redneck Cops

 

[ChirpnBern]

Sorry but that image made me chuckle. Out of curiosity how did the rooster react to the hen-snatching? We used to have around 100 free-ranging on our place but that was years ago and it`s funny how you forget things, like I can`t remember if hawks were much of a problem and whether our roosters ran AT them or FROM them. Now we just have some hens and a rooster in a wired-over pen plus a wired-over bachelor pen. The roos always make what I call the danger-in-the-air long, low call, almost like a growl, when there`s a hawk of any kind around, even though it can`t get them.

Once on a Sunday morning some years ago we heard a big ruckus right near the house. One of the free-range banties was beating the snot out of a Cooper`s hawk that had grabbed one of her 3-week-old chicks. It was of course too late for the chick the instant the hawk grabbed it, but the hen made it pay dearly for that meal. It was all the hawk could do to break away from her and get clear. I think it managed to hang onto the chick as it escaped. Hmm. What is it with hawks and chicken dinners on Sundays?