Hawk attack - little hen has survived...so far

[McGoo]

Al,
short answer is yes. There are hawks around here, though less in winter. The best news is that the other chickens must have really attacked the hawk and its either killed or badly injured. I've noticed this before when the roo had blood on his beak and feet, but absolutely no signs of injury.

I'm certainly open to here about how to keep hawks away. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[sydney13]

My hen was also recently attacked by a hawk and had pretty deep punctures. Its only been a few days but she is are really showing good improvement so Im thinking that your hen will also probably look good soon

From what Ive ready hydrogen peroxide is very good to clean wounds if you only use it once and no more than that. It helps to bubble the organic matter out of the wound which other products don't do. Than you can follow up with diluted iodine (dilute it with water until its the color of ice tea). The antibiotics that you buy at feed stores for putting in the water will not help with wounds. One thing that will help is putting neosporin onto the wound and filling the punctures up with it. You can also give her some injectable antibiotics like penicillin. This will help to prevent infections but it is not necessary unless its a pretty bad wound.
Toward the bottom of this page their is a really helpful post
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=231156
good luck with you chicken

 

[Miss Lydia]

Blue kote would help to cover the wounds up. But you'll need to try to find out whos pecking her and remover the culprit or it most likely will continue.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Hawk attacks can be easily prevented, lot's of people do it all the time.

How do you prevent hawk attacks short of never letting chickens free-range? A hawk tried to get my two hens a few weeks ago and I was fortunately close by and scared it away but I hear it overhead all day long. My girls aren't getting nearly as much time outside as a result and I feel like I have to be on the lookout constantly when I do let them out of their pen. Definitely a turn for the worse as far as their quality of life, and mine...​

 

[McGoo]

Quote:
Great information... thanks.

 

[McGoo]

Quote:
How do you prevent hawk attacks short of never letting chickens free-range? A hawk tried to get my two hens a few weeks ago and I was fortunately close by and scared it away but I hear it overhead all day long. My girls aren't getting nearly as much time outside as a result and I feel like I have to be on the lookout constantly when I do let them out of their pen. Definitely a turn for the worse as far as their quality of life, and mine...

I tend to opt for freedom for them. Fortunately, I've got a good roo and he fights hard against any predator. That said, I have lost one to a hawk and many to a major fox attack (before I put up the electric fencing)

I'm anxious to hear how to protect them too.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

I can't have a roo

Neighbors too close.

Al6517 - we're all ears!

 

[Kelly's Chickens]

My dh and I put up landscape timbers (standing vertically) about 25 ft apart around the perimeter of our chicken yards and then a few in the middle of each yard. I have 4 yards that I move them amongst every two weeks. Then we ran string line from post to post criss-crossing it like a spider web. I filled in the gaps using fishing line making sure none of our holes were more then 18 inches wide. We did this in Aug '10 and didn't have an attack until Jan '11. That was my fault as I put our electric fencing about 2 feet outside the string/fishing line in one spot and the hawk got in there (it's been fixed!).
My hen had damage to her left eye but it is doing so much better now. I put 1-2 drops Gentamicin Sulfate Opthalmic solution in it three times a day for the last two weeks. Today I cut it down to twice a day. She can see to eat out of my hand and is starting to dig/scratch again. I had to separate her from the flock unless I was with her. She's really frightened when the roosters try to mate with her. She'll run in a panic until I can calm her down. I've now moved her to a chicken tractor with two egg eaters so she can heal unmolested.
I'm not sure we can totally protect our flock from hawks but we're going to do all we have to do so we can continue to pasture them.

 

[ipana]

There is bird netting available, too. I got some online and it's really durable. It will be in its second year with no problems. There are all different widths and lengths. Just a thought for people to consider. If you have a large enough spot, it's almost as though they are free ranging.

 

[Kelly's Chickens]

I forgot to mention the wildlife netting. We bought some of that last week-7' X 100'. I cut it in 28" widths to put from the top of my fence up to the string/fishing line. So far it's working great. We also put it over the walk-in door of the coop since I couldn't put the string/fishing line there, it would have been in the way of the door opening. Now we're putting it in the little woods in our chicken yard where there are openings in the trees big enough for hawks to get through. I'm also building a new area around my garden to put the BO's in to till it up. I'll be using the netting to cover a 25' X 25' square instead of using the fishing line. We'll still use the string line between the posts and diagonally so we have something to tie the netting to.

BTW, we have a lot of coopers hawks that don't make any sound at all. We have an abundance of blue jays which do sound like hawks squawking. I hear them everyday all day and thought they were hawks until my dh pointed to some that were squawking and we both realized they are just harmless blue jays.