And I saw the hawk the next day and he was HUGE!
My chickens free-ranged for 10 years without a mishap. The ducks, well they would never last so I stopped buying them. I was a stay-at-home mom at the time which I guess helped a lot to keep my chickens safe.
A couple years ago, I had a terrible massacre while I was at work, I'm assuming it was a fox or dogs so I made the chickens an indoor day run INSIDE my barn. I have chicken wire going up 5 feet, on one side and barn walls on the other 3 sides. But the roof is 9 feet tall so there's a 4 foot open area to the ceiling, so I'm wondering if the hawk would fly in there, although he would have to fly down then up, then down again. I do have goats inside the barn which I think has helped keep the chickens safe from hawks all these years, but now the goats are 14 yrs old and don't move around as much. It was rainy the day of the attack and goats don't like rain either.
I bought 3 new chickens in May, two were Polish hens and one was a Silver Laced Wyandotte + a SLW rooster (I had always wanted Polish chickens so I was very happy with these birds I named Ivy and Ginger) however they can fly better than any chicken I've ever seen. All was well until my work hours changed to where I had to leave at 6:30 am instead of 9am. I normally let the chickens out of their raccoon-proof stall and guide them over to their run but the girls would fly out of the run. The rooster could not fly out. Anyway, at noon my daughter went outside and found our beautiful solid-white Ivy dead and it was obvious what killed her, the plucked out feathers and all. My daughter called me at work sobbing and could barely speak...it was awful.
Anyway, I clipped the other two chicken's wings yesterday because despite putting up ropes to block their flight the chickens still managed to fly up and get out. My 10 yr old silver laced Wyandotte does not do this so I have never had to deal with this before.
I am trying to move so I cannot build anything, but I'm sad that now I have to worry about them free-ranging even when I'm home. And, I also have a very old goose..I wonder if this hawk would try to bother her? She is separated from the chickens and is closer to the house because she killed a silkie rooster in the past.
We normally have a lot of red shouldered hawks which are sort of small but this one was much bigger compared to them.
Anyway...I just wanted to share my experience and maybe get some input.
My chickens free-ranged for 10 years without a mishap. The ducks, well they would never last so I stopped buying them. I was a stay-at-home mom at the time which I guess helped a lot to keep my chickens safe.
A couple years ago, I had a terrible massacre while I was at work, I'm assuming it was a fox or dogs so I made the chickens an indoor day run INSIDE my barn. I have chicken wire going up 5 feet, on one side and barn walls on the other 3 sides. But the roof is 9 feet tall so there's a 4 foot open area to the ceiling, so I'm wondering if the hawk would fly in there, although he would have to fly down then up, then down again. I do have goats inside the barn which I think has helped keep the chickens safe from hawks all these years, but now the goats are 14 yrs old and don't move around as much. It was rainy the day of the attack and goats don't like rain either.
I bought 3 new chickens in May, two were Polish hens and one was a Silver Laced Wyandotte + a SLW rooster (I had always wanted Polish chickens so I was very happy with these birds I named Ivy and Ginger) however they can fly better than any chicken I've ever seen. All was well until my work hours changed to where I had to leave at 6:30 am instead of 9am. I normally let the chickens out of their raccoon-proof stall and guide them over to their run but the girls would fly out of the run. The rooster could not fly out. Anyway, at noon my daughter went outside and found our beautiful solid-white Ivy dead and it was obvious what killed her, the plucked out feathers and all. My daughter called me at work sobbing and could barely speak...it was awful.
Anyway, I clipped the other two chicken's wings yesterday because despite putting up ropes to block their flight the chickens still managed to fly up and get out. My 10 yr old silver laced Wyandotte does not do this so I have never had to deal with this before.
I am trying to move so I cannot build anything, but I'm sad that now I have to worry about them free-ranging even when I'm home. And, I also have a very old goose..I wonder if this hawk would try to bother her? She is separated from the chickens and is closer to the house because she killed a silkie rooster in the past.
We normally have a lot of red shouldered hawks which are sort of small but this one was much bigger compared to them.
Anyway...I just wanted to share my experience and maybe get some input.
