Close Encounter of the Areial Type

[Salt and Light]

Stinkin' hawk was ALMOST successful in culling one my chicks! I like hawks but I value my chicks just a little more <smile>.

I want my chicks to have a couple hours of free-time everyday but when can I stop worrying about Mr. Hawk trying to have chicken fricassee? Will a red tail hawk swoop on a 1/2 grown chicken? How about a full-grown bird; are they safe from dive bombing?

 

[speckledhen]

No, they are not safe from hawks, even grown. Wish they were! My roosters keep the girls safe with their 'eagle eye' and alarm calls.

 

[purr]

my father says one of the plastic owls will work but my feed guy who is awesome been selling feed his whole life says it won't.

Unfortunately I can't shoot the hawk, they are protected

The other day my 8 week old chicks were freeranging and i went in the house (to pee) and I heard the hawk screech barely got my pants up the hawk was sitting in a tree in my yard so now I am afraid to go in the house when they are out ,

I was going to try making a believable scarecrow.

 

[conny63malies]

i saw hawks chasing full grown 12 pound roosters into a fence. the roo got stuck and the hawks were sitting there eating him.

 

[Salt and Light]

So, chickens are either in the coop/run or else they are fair game for hawks?

 

[Chickaroo!]

Maybe you could make a small run that is covered so your babies can still be outside, yet be protected.
The run for my coop is totally covered. My DH just finished (almost) building a new coop and the run that's going to be attached to that is also going to be totally covered.

 

[Salt and Light]

Chicaroo, I already have a covered run (something like 40 sq ft), but I really want them to free-range.

I've sort of discovered that the hawks are on a morning/evening schedule. They are most prevalent in the AM and tend to be somewhere else in the evening. As such, I will be letting out the birds a couple of hours before dark. Generally, I'm outside with my 3 y/o so hopefully I will be able to hear the screech of an approaching hawk.

 

[Chickaroo!]

I've read on here somewhere that you could maybe use old cd's. The shine on them scares the hawks. I almost forgot about that!

 

[purr]

ooh thanks chickaroo I have a ton of scratch dvd's (grandson's rough on them ) I'll try that

 

[JennsPeeps]

Plastic owls don't work b/c the hawks figure out that they're not a threat when they stay in the same place for weeks & weeks.