Foiled Hawks

[gmomfarms]

It is haying time here in the mountains. The fields to the east of us were done yesterday and today and we are scheduled tomorrow. Haying brings the hawks by the dozens as it stirs up the habitats of the mice, rabbits, snakes and chipmonks. This is my first year with chickens and because we do have a hawk, coyote and other predator load, I decided not to free range, though that was my goal. My run is cage wire on one pen with a plastic poultry net top and my big run for my girls is 4 ft garden fence with about 80% of it covered with the same type of plastic poultry net.
When we were leaving for town this afternoon, there was one hawk perched on top of the coop and another circling about a dozen feet in the air. The girls were huddled under the coop and the meaties were hiding under the tarped area of their pen. The hawks didn't figure it out thank goodness, my girls are only 13 weeks old. There is one area that they could get into the girl's run, but it would likely get caught under the net, then I would really have a mess. I guess I should try to figure out a way to close in that part too.
While this was going on, there were 5 bunnies on the driveway only a few dozen yards away.















5

 

[Alaskan]

Ack!

I have had a hawk just sitting there on my fence post, eyeing my chickens.

Not a good thing.

 

[Blueberryfairy]

I think you are ok even if you only have part of the run covered. Hawks not only have to have the room to attack, they need to have sufficient space to take off with extra weight; they can't go vertical like a helicopter. Your biggest problem is the stress caused to your chickens by the hawk's presence - they will continue to hide (and presumably not eat) while the hawk is visible.

 

[Alaskan]

Nope, the hawk sits on the ground, eats the chicken, then flys off.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

...Hawks not only have to have the room to attack, they need to have sufficient space to take off with extra weight....

Alaskan is right. There is no hawk that I am aware of that can get air born with a full size chicken in his or her talons. Not only is the weight of the prey a limiting factor but the added air resistance from all those mussed up chicken feathers sticking out at odd angles plus two useless chicken wings dangling in midair makes a hawk trying to fly off with a chicken like you trying to fly away with both fists full of cardboard boxes.

 

[Blueberryfairy]

Sorry - but this happened while we were right here. We didn't see the hawk attack, but a pair of red tails had been hanging around in the trees around midday. We heard the hens screech, and came running out of the house - just a pile of feathers in the middle of our lawn. There were no other chicken remains such as would have been left if the hawk had had the time to dine on the spot. A hawk got another one a couple of days later, but was not able to fly off with it; I suspect the first hen was taken by the male, and the other by the female who wasn't quite able to lift it. There might also have been a difference in the weight of the hens.

Our hens lived in terror and hid under bushes for the next several days - none of them would cross the lawn.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

That is interesting because a hawk begins dining while the hen is still living. There are examples on this very forum were partially eaten hens have been rescued and recovered. To begin feeding the first thing a hawk does is strip down off the still struggling body while he controls his victim with his talons. It looks and even sounds like he is giving the hen a hot wax treatment. That is where that pile of feathers you found came from. If you have been indoctrinated about Mother Nature being a sublime and beautiful provider for her peaceful and loving children get over that idea. Mother Nature is the coldest, hardest, and most cruel woman that 100 Steven Kings can imagine, at least by human standards.

To me, the example you gave of the shrinking wall flower she hawk not being able to fly away with her prize is telling. FYI the female red tail hawk is as much as one & one half times again as big as the male hawk. Hawk mating also involves a lot of feeding ritual where the female hawk has a good chance to evaluate the bread winning potential of a future mate. This is true because it is the smaller male hawk that does most of the hunting and killing, especially during incubation and early chick rearing. The screech you heard was likely an alarm sound your chickens made when one or the other of the two hawks (likely the female) showed up to quickly make off with the partially eaten remains of your hen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XybLPlH5zx8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mzT5ICbg1k&feature=endscreen&NR=1

As you can see from these two videos, red tail hawks are supreme catchers of animals up to or larger than themselves, but red tailed hawks are lousy killers of large prey, even when it is only another red tailed hawk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBJcx9slK4&NR=1&feature=endscreen
The sparrow hawk and the dove in the above video are on the same scale that a red tail hawk is to a hen.
Warning: Do not watch this video if you easily become sick to your stomach.

 

[Blueberryfairy]

Thanks - as much as I've watched the pair of red tails, I never realized the larger one was the female. I'm not sure how long they live, but we have had a pair nesting within a few hundred yards of our chickens for years, and this is the first time they were an active threat - and we haven't had any problem with them since. If they ate part of the hen before taking off with it, they must have been really fast, because we had been out in that part of the yard minutes before the hens started the alarm, and ran back out immediately when we heard them. But the timing seems odd for your scenario of breeding ritual - it was late summer. Unless they raise more than one brood - ?

BTW, as I grew up on a farm, I never thought of Mother Nature as a beautiful, sublime provider. Most wild animals have to fight for everything they get. I also didn't think of the female hawk as a shrinking wall flower at all - I just made the mistake of thinking she was the smaller, and therefore couldn't lift as much. Most wild females (and not wild as well) are as fierce as need be to protect themselves and their young. I also don't begrudge them the hen; over the years, I'm sure they've killed enough rabbits, rats and other pests to pay for it! I just don't want to make a habit of feeding them...