Hawk Attack

[greggooo]

All right everyone. Go back and look at the video again. Chickens new hawk was coming well before it flew into view. Look at how chickens run holding feathers and listen. Also, the target had someone besides the human very much willing to engage the hawk. Hawk would have been repelled by that fourth party.

Good reaction by human.

You mean Beastie, my rooster? He ran towards it.

 

[centrarchid]

He wanted a piece of the hawks backside and would have prevailed. Such happens more often than we realize.

The hawk was not demonstrating a lack of fear, rather focus. The human was treated by the hawk as if a tree.

 

[greggooo]

He wanted a piece of the hawks backside and would have prevailed. Such happens more often than we realize.

The hawk was not demonstrating a lack of fear, rather focus. The human was treated by the hawk as if a tree.

Like the Womping Willow tree from Harry Potter.

 

[Talithahorse]

As i'v said before hawks have lost all fear of humans, but it wasn't always so.

Remember that this time of year you have a lot of young stupid hawks who are just now learning to fend for themselves in the big bad world. Likely this youngster will seek out easier prey. Sometimes when they are young, they are impulsive and desperate, just like typical teenagers who sometimes engage in dangerous activity. I bet his teenage friends double dog dared him to attack with the person right there.

 

[happyfrenchman]

That is a pretty good depiction of what it was like when I had pigeons. Hawks would swoop right past me as I was turning to see what was the alarm. The predators are desperate and reckless. Young stupid hawks should be trimmed. They should not be hunting chickens. They should not be sitting on fence posts or tree branches, or on top of your coop salivating, watching your birds. There are too many of them (which is why they grow desperate and hunt chickens.)... Roosters are not fail safe either. I interrupted a Coopers hawk wrestling with my good sized BC Marans rooster. i don't know if he jumped in to save a hen or if it attacked him first off but he was entangled and I believe he was not winning. If hawks are swooping right past you to get a chicken, they deserve whatever they get. I clip a few here and there every year (many more when I had the roller pigeons) and nonetheless, by the end of the year, the songbirds are decimated, the remaining hawks are gaunt and desperate, and my chickens have to be kept in because I cannot stand watch over them all day. There are way too many of them, and I offer the increased predation people are seeing as the evidence.

 

[greggooo]

That is a pretty good depiction of what it was like when I had pigeons. Hawks would swoop right past me as I was turning to see what was the alarm. The predators are desperate and reckless. Young stupid hawks should be trimmed. They should not be hunting chickens. They should not be sitting on fence posts or tree branches, or on top of your coop salivating, watching your birds. There are too many of them (which is why they grow desperate and hunt chickens.)... Roosters are not fail safe either. I interrupted a Coopers hawk wrestling with my good sized BC Marans rooster. i don't know if he jumped in to save a hen or if it attacked him first off but he was entangled and I believe he was not winning. If hawks are swooping right past you to get a chicken, they deserve whatever they get. I clip a few here and there every year (many more when I had the roller pigeons) and nonetheless, by the end of the year, the songbirds are decimated, the remaining hawks are gaunt and desperate, and my chickens have to be kept in because I cannot stand watch over them all day. There are way too many of them, and I offer the increased predation people are seeing as the evidence.

So scary. Did you tear the hawk off of him? My rooster, who runs at the hawk, is young. They’re all the same age and he only has small spur nubs right now. I was impressed by his instinct though. Kinda makes up for him being a bit of a sexual predator to the hens.

Do the hawks try and carry them away, or just get them on the ground?

 

[happyfrenchman]

So scary. Did you tear the hawk off of him? My rooster, who runs at the hawk, is young. They’re all the same age and he only has small spur nubs right now. I was impressed by his instinct though. Kinda makes up for him being a bit of a sexual predator to the hens.

Do the hawks try and carry them away, or just get them on the ground?

You gave him a left chop.... Too bad you didn't have a tennis racket. Your rooster was on the job..... the way your birds were moving, they knew there was a threat. But a hawk can sit and watch all day and never strike. You cannot see them usually. Your rooster was feisty, but that hawk could probably kill him with little trouble. That was a Coopers in your video. Looks like the hawk was trying to hover over the intended victim but never closed in. With my rooster, that hawk was a large female who flew off before I could reach them. I have never had one carried off. They usually eat them right there on the ground. Even a small pullet. Usually only Coopers hawks are the problem where I am, and they are relatively small compared to a chicken. The rooster was larger but he was no match for her. When I showed up and they untangled, he ran into the bushes and stayed there. Last year, I saw (on my video cameras) a female Coopers kill a mature hen. She flew back and forth and drove the chickens back and forth (from cover to cover) across the yard until she had her victim cornered and isolated. Then she flew up and down from a shed roof, three or four times til she battened on. Proficient. I counter ambushed her when she returned at dark. It was impressively cautious. People don't realize that they will return. You have to leave the victim where it lays (or move it to a better spot not too far) then wait and watch. The mystery of who or what did it will shortly be solved.

 

[centrarchid]

I have been keeping chickens for quite a while. Losses to hawks has not increased appreciably in the last 30 years. Only increase I have noted occurred in years after DDT applications stopped.

Efficacy of roosters against Coopers not high when this time of year and when hens not breeding with rooster or with his offspring.

Otherwise the rooster is proficient at repelling Coopers Hawks. Even hens can do it when they have chicks. The hawks are strongly motivated to target chicks and they usually try to fly off immediately once it is caught and not yet dispatched, otherwise hen or rooster flogs hawk with at least a 4 to 1 weight advantage against a target that has at least one foot tied up holding another bird.

This stands for standard sized chickens that are mature and not encumbered by a lot of mutations typical of more ornamental of the ornamental breeds.

 

[Squeak61]

Wow, what a video! Awesome reflexes, I’m so glad your birds are ok. I had a hawk attack back in the summer. It picked up one of my young pullets! My mother was outside and managed to kick the awful thing to get it to drop my hen. My chicken sufferered some bad puncture wounds but made it through. It’s insane how fast the hawks swoop down and back up, and so quiet too.

 

[greggooo]

You gave him a left chop.... Too bad you didn't have a tennis racket. Your rooster was on the job..... the way your birds were moving, they knew there was a threat. But a hawk can sit and watch all day and never strike. You cannot see them usually. Your rooster was feisty, but that hawk could probably kill him with little trouble. That was a Coopers in your video. Looks like the hawk was trying to hover over the intended victim but never closed in. With my rooster, that hawk was a large female who flew off before I could reach them. I have never had one carried off. They usually eat them right there on the ground. Even a small pullet. Usually only Coopers hawks are the problem where I am, and they are relatively small compared to a chicken. The rooster was larger but he was no match for her. When I showed up and they untangled, he ran into the bushes and stayed there. Last year, I saw (on my video cameras) a female Coopers kill a mature hen. She flew back and forth and drove the chickens back and forth (from cover to cover) across the yard until she had her victim cornered and isolated. Then she flew up and down from a shed roof, three or four times til she battened on. Proficient. I counter ambushed her when she returned at dark. It was impressively cautious. People don't realize that they will return. You have to leave the victim where it lays (or move it to a better spot not too far) then wait and watch. The mystery of who or what did it will shortly be solved.

Oh geez, that's scary. I'm gonna take that tennis racquet outside from now on. Seems like they have their routine down. Yeah, my rooster is still quite young, he has tiny little baby spurs right now. I'm glad it didn't come to that.