Cooper's Hawks Hunt Openings to Coops During Migration!

[sourland]

Did it buy you a drink first?

Do you have any idea how long it has been since ANYTHING has bought me a drink ?

 

[Below frigid]

Even if you kill a hawk, it's not going to do any good. They're an avian predator, they fly long distances to look for food. You'd have to kill all the hawks in the area (which you should not do, for multiple reasons) to make sure that a hawk never got near your chickens again. It's not like other predators with smaller ranges.
One thing you can try doing is befriending any local corvids, or more belligerent smaller birds. Crows, ravens, blue jays, grackles, etc will drive away hawks for you.

Do as you please but remember that hanging always comes after the catching. Dead hawks always were a prerequisite to live free range chickens. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the facts. In many ways a chemical control of those hawks killing your poultry is in effect a good practice for the environment. The reason being that you are only controlling the hawks that are actively feeding on domestic poultry. This is much better on the hawk population than the kill them all knee jerk reaction.

So we are saying that it is bad if a hawk experiences a painful demise while it is well and good if a chicken is basically eaten to death while your hen is in the clutches of a hawk? I think that this calluses regard for the lives and well being of the chickens that we keep is shocking.

I believe in controlling individual hawks that are after your chickens. Not an advocate of poisons due to the possibility of secondary poisoning of non target animals and pets. In rural areas a shotgun is a good reliable form of predator control, both flying and all 4 legged critters. You may still lose a bird or two but you will get the hawk that has your chicken. Keep your gun handy and when you hear your birds alarm you have to act fast. Mine have lots of near by cover which gives me a little extra time. It is usally a hawk or a pair in a specific area but eventually new ones will have to be dealt with. I have not lost one that I know of to hawks but its not because they have not tried.

 

[duluthralphie]

Chickens are prey animals. All hawks are genetically predisposed to eating prey animals.

Therefore, killing those predisposed to eating chicken would end all hawk problems,,,, makes sense to moi.



Edited to add,,, but I would never do one in myself,,,, I would hire Mr. Capone... I am far to squimish to kill anything myself..

 

[Below frigid]

Therefore, killing those predisposed to eating chicken would end all hawk problems,,,, makes sense to moi.

No not all, but current hawk problems.

 

[Molpet]

last year or the year before, I caught a guy cutting through my place to get to the forest preserve behind me.. turned out to be the conservation officer going to look for deer poachers in the preserve. Being it is alway nice to be on their good side, we chatted a bit. As several pairs of red tails were out the conversation turned to them. He mentioned they had done a study and there were too many hawks, but it's not legal to do anything about them... Also he didn't know why they were worried about poachers in the preserve, when there were too many deer in the other preserves and they were doing culling... Told him I was doing my part on my land as far as the deer were concerned

 

[Boonie Stomper]

OMG... So many choices...

If a hen can get out the coop eves, a predator can get in... Hawks have been known to get in under netting loosely attached to the run walls

... Thanks for lifting my blindfold... You're right though. Hadn't thought about the 'where one sneaks out, another can get in. Perhaps simply due to the generally inaccessible nature of the breach in the high corner... But yes, something could get in if it were aware of it, except for the escapee chicken. Thus the urgency to clip - it can't get back in when the coop is locked.

I thought it was an Owl that took the heads. Or at least that is what I was told as a kid

Since I saw the Cooper Hawk on my hen's head, it is a given mode of operation for it. It isn't much of a stretch to see that other raptors, owls might do the same.

Hawks will return to the same kill so it is possible to put something on the remains of your chicken that will give yea-old-Coopers-hawk a belly ache. I am sure that this is no more painful for the Coopers hawk than it is for your chicken being eaten alive while a hawk twists its talons in your hens guts.

Actually, if it worked to deter further attacks on my flock by leaving them with a bellyache bearing binge on tainted guts from their last kill, it would be terrific. Non poisonous of course. And. I. Did. Just. This.
Flipside is, rats foxes coons etc get there first and perhaps they didn't consider it bad at all.

Even if you kill a hawk, it's not going to do any good. They're an avian predator, they fly long distances to look for food. You'd have to kill all the hawks in the area (which you should not do, for multiple reasons) to make sure that a hawk never got near your chickens again. It's not like other predators with smaller ranges.
One thing you can try doing is befriending any local corvids, or more belligerent smaller birds. Crows, ravens, blue jays, grackles, etc will drive away hawks for you.

The killer in this thread is migratory... Perhaps en route from Minnesota to Florida? The "regulars in my local area are kept fed most of the time with rabbit squirrels moles voles rats mice fish frogs wild birds etc. We live adjacent to wetlands.

Used to be predators were afraid of people and stayed away unless they were desperate.. ... Just saying

Umm... People are predators...

Some species feed primarily on mammals. Of those that feed on avian species some become specialists. Those are the birds that stop feeding on wild species and go for our 'easier' domesticated birds. Some are easily dissuaded, and others are as brazen as mustellids. I have had Cooper's strike birds at my feet, hit aviaries right next to me, and one even made a pass at me when I was holding a pigeon.

Wow! Too bad it's illegal to mess with them here... Conjuring up ideas of using a BeepBeep Pelt decoy to lure and catch the offending stalker before it strikes again... I'm fairly convinced the same hawk that attacked Missy last spring is who dunnit to BeepBeep!

 

[Fishkeeper]

"This predator killed my animal in a painful way because my animal was accessible to the predator" is not an excuse to then go and kill that predator in an inhumane manner. If you see no alternative to killing a predator, it is your responsibility, as a human with tools at your disposal, to do so humanely if at all possible. Same reason as why you shouldn't drown a trapped raccoon no matter what it did to your chickens. It is not evil, it is not capable of malice, it doesn't need to be punished for what it did.

 

[duluthralphie]

These threads, no matter how innocent they start, or how much some of us joke about the predators. I myself, do because we are helpless to actually enact a revenge on the BOP. Never end well and are normally locked by the moderators, before mayhem ensues.


As much as I would enjoy the feeling of watching the bald eagle that ate my only house cat, and dozens of my birds fold up and tumble to the ground after the retort of my Remington, it will never happen. I will not risk my few remaining years locked in a federal prison locked up with other bird murderers and rapist,,, and I surely do not want to give the judge 50k of my hard earned money as a fine for exacting said revenge.


We all have different methods of executing the offending fur bearers we are allowed to send to the predatoral hell. I myself have used drowning. It is relatively safe and easy. I do not have to risk the offender escaping. I do not have risk a rabid animal infecting someone.. after all we never know which one has rabies..

Most importantly to me. I do not risk a missed shot wounding the evil predator and ruining an expensive live trap.

Please, @Fishkeeper , remember much of what was said on this thread was said, “tongue in cheek”. None of us meant to offend you, well, at least I didn’t, no matter whether we agree with your position on predators or not.

Hopefully, the mood can lighten and the thread continue.... heavy cover as someone mentioned does help prevent air attacks..... but that same cover hides the sneaky ground attacks by the fur bearing infantry...

I lose birds to both. I hate losing them. But I also hate locking my birds up and never free ranging... I have huge covered pens and dozens of coops. But I prefer free ranging. The birds are happier. I spend less money feeding them.... and they kill the ticks I also want to see die slow painful deaths.

Anyways have a good day.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Egads. So much turmoil in my hijacked thread. Movin on now, having let my skinned bird age in the fridge and the pelt in a cooler in a cool area for a few days, its time to cook the chicken. The rest of the flock are cooped up except for during my brief excursions to do yard work. I try to pick times when the crows are around and have not seen hawks then. But they are still scoping my yard at other times. And, the fox is still coming nightly for any bones and scraps at each home along this road.

 

[duluthralphie]

Egads. So much turmoil in my hijacked thread. Movin on now, having let my skinned bird age in the fridge and the pelt in a cooler in a cool area for a few days, its time to cook the chicken. The rest of the flock are cooped up except for during my brief excursions to do yard work. I try to pick times when the crows are around and have not seen hawks then. But they are still scoping my yard at other times. And, the fox is still coming nightly for any bones and scraps at each home along this road.

Feeding the crows helps.. I have my compost pile close enough to the yard to attract the crows.. I leave them eggs now and then as a thank you gift.