crazy chicken hawk

[mamajulie]

I am new to the list and need alot of advice, I have 8 chicks that are just a month old, ther egrowing good and today it was nice so I had the barn door open, I have them in a big bird cage, the wire is about 1-4 in apart, I walked in and saw a red tail hawk with on of my babies, to tell the truth, she had just killed it threw the cage, I was heart broken, I have some larger chickens that I have our side completly fenced in with 1 in welded wire, the next thing I know is she is sitting on top of the crates(cages) I had 40 dogs on my farm(I do greyhound rescue) and you would think she would be afraid but she is not, I have 25 babies coming the last of the month and I am really worry.......HELP

mama julie and the hounds and the scared chickens

 

[Redfeathers]

HI
Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you are going through this. I'm giving it a bump up to see if anyone knows how to help. I haven't dealt with hawks yet, though we do have one that circles around overhead now and then. Good luck and I hope someone can give you some advice.

 

[chicknmania]

There's lots of posts on here about hawks. Just search hawk and you'll see. One thing we've found that helps, is to hang old dvd's or cd's on a string in the area where your chickens are. In your case sounds like that should be easy. Hopefully there's some airflow where the chicks are so the cd's swing, and flash. We had a problem with hawks hanging out near, or in, our barn.. and since we hung the cd's up (we only use a couple) I haven't noticed the hawks near the barn.

 

[wilded]

Put up a plastic Great Horned Owl as most hawks fear the owl and will stay away from its territory. ET

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Try one of those plastic owls, the ones that move or even make noise are best. Just make sure that the birdcage that the chicks are in, gets extra wire, to she can't kill them through the cage.

Another thing that I do, is encourage the dogs to run hawks off. It can be tricky sometimes though, because you have to be sure that the dog know the difference between the chickens and the hawk.

There are many forums with dealing with hawks, just read through them and you will find tons of helpful information.

-Kimberly