hawk attack lockdown

[zmender]

Hawk attack again this morning! This time I'm prepared, muwahaha.

Past couple of weeks, I've put up bird net over the area of chicken run that's most exposed, and I've created a spider web of baler twines on areas where it's more wooded.

I was outside splitting some wood and heard a raucous. I ran to this the run (pun intended ), my chickens are scattering and here it is - a red tailed hawk looking stunned laying in the corner by itself, with wings wide open. I suspect as the hawk was dive bombing the chickens, its wings got tangled by the twins and crash landed into my run.

I was able to pick up the hawk without any fightback, snapped a few shame photos, and released it. Hope this hawk learnt lesson - there's no easy breakfast here!

5 of my hens are healthy and accounted for, 1 huge brahma is missing somewhere... figure she'll come out of hiding in a few hours.

 

[KRack]

Hawk attack again this morning! This time I'm prepared, muwahaha.

Past couple of weeks, I've put up bird net over the area of chicken run that's most exposed, and I've created a spider web of baler twines on areas where it's more wooded.

I was outside splitting some wood and heard a raucous. I ran to this the run (pun intended ), my chickens are scattering and here it is - a red tailed hawk looking stunned laying in the corner by itself, with wings wide open. I suspect as the hawk was dive bombing the chickens, its wings got tangled by the twins and crash landed into my run.

I was able to pick up the hawk without any fightback, snapped a few shame photos, and released it. Hope this hawk learnt lesson - there's no easy breakfast here!

5 of my hens are healthy and accounted for, 1 huge brahma is missing somewhere... figure she'll come out of hiding in a few hours.

Share the pictures!

I’ve kept my flock in the run or fenced in area for a week after a hawk attack. I learned the hawk generally went to a new area after noon, so after the week of being closed up, I let them free range from noon until almost dark.

 

[zmender]

Here it is - looking a little upset for missing breakfast.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Good job!!!

 

[KRack]

Here it is - looking a little upset for missing breakfast.

Man, beautiful bird though. Glad your hens are safe!

 

[KyCoop]

The string works. Not as a keep a hawk out kind of thing but more of a dive bomb interup-ter. It gives the girls the extra seconds they need to hide or get to safety. I had young hawk hit the string and crash into me and saw one pull up at the last second and crashed into the neighbors bush. Much to the girls excitement. They enjoyed running to the fence and making fun of it.

 

[Mr Spot]

You are better than me, that hawk wouldn't have flown off.

 

[New2theFlock]

Following this thread. Lost my favorite chicken to a hawk attack today. The tree that provided cover for them and protection from the hawks fell during weekend storms, and just two days later-- boom. There goes Patient Chicken. Am I correct in that if I found her with a broken neck and missing part of her head that that was a hawk?

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry, and it certainly could have been a hawk.
Keep everyone locked in for at least ten days or more.
Mary

 

[GCrumb]

Am I correct in that if I found her with a broken neck and missing part of her head that that was a hawk?

Male hawks like to eat brains/heads in the spring. Usually he gives the rest to his lady but if it's too big to carry or he's too successful for her to want any more you see this kind of thing.

Past couple of days I've obsessively looked through every tree branch visible from my coop (I live in woods, this was no small feat) with a pair of 10x42 binoculars. Couldn't see any hawks.

How do y'all spot hawks?

Red-tails and other broad-winged soaring types like to sit up high on a bare branch with a good view all around. You can sometimes spot their favourite places by the white streaks around. This is easier if you're looking at a cliff trying to spot falcons -- falcons have droppings and they drop straight down, but hawks and eagles do 'slices' which squirt out behind them and get spread more thinly.

hawks don't fly IN the forest, do they?

Accipiters, like goshawks, do. Instead of dripping down from above they'll come in low from behind cover, vault over it or around it. They can dodge through obstacles at speed in a really impressive way.