Close call with hawk

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Lol. I've done that a time or two myself.

Me too. That's why I now live by a rule that when I'm inside the house I always have shoes on when my crew is free ranging.

 

[Sheltiepawz]

today is a nice day here at just above freezing. I had cleared their area of snow inside their electric poultry net. They spent most of the day out there and were loving it. We have kept in this large fenced off area when we let them out as we live on the edge of a wooded area with lots of predators. We have not really seen many hawks here before They have never had an issue. Today , we were having lunch and my wife screamed and I looked to see the chickens all scurrying into the coop. My wife couldn’t find the words at first but a large hawk had swooped down to ground level and flew off. We ran outside in the snow with no shoes on and did a head count. Our white rock was missing. Then I heard her in the woods. She had flown over the fenced area and I could see in the snow prints that she was airborn further then I ever imagined she could . She was hiding in The snow in some branches. She let me walk over and never flinched as I picked her up and brought her back. She did a great job avoiding that hawk. Needless to say they are all locked up for the remainder of the day. My wife thinks that now that hawk will always come back knowing she was close to a meal. I wonder if that is true.

Yes the hawk will be back!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Part of what is attracting the predators is the mice and rats that are living off the chicken feed buffet. The surplus of rodents brings in the hawks and owls and then the chickens get targeted.
Wild rodents are limited by the amount of food available and the risk of predators killing the rodents while foraging for feed. Plus with limited feed the rodents can and will limit their breeding and litter size.

Secure the feed, use a treadle feeder with a spring loaded door, force the mice and rats out into the wild where their numbers will in sync with the wild food available and the predators will be forced to follow them instead of having a rat and mouse buffet served up around your chicken coop.