Hawk attack?

[cmom]

A couple of days ago I did my morning chicken check and my camera rounds. All was fine. I went on an appointment and to do some errands. When I came back the birds were seriously fussing so I went out to check and there was a big hawk in one of the pens and bodies everywhere. I found a gap in the netting that covers the pens and fixed it. I lost 15 birds. There is another bird I don't think is going to make it but I'm doing my best. My thought is that either the hawk had some help or it was attacking the birds as they were running around. I was surprised to find so many dead birds. You never know. I feel mad at myself for not noticing the gap in the netting. Yesterday I checked all of the pens to make sure there weren't any more places I missed.

 

[Quackter]

We didn’t catch the pup in the act. She was chewing on the chicken. Seeing the hawks made me think maybe it wasn’t her. So hard to tell without catching her

Your puppy knows delicious chicken comes in feather wrappers now, whether it or the hawk killed the chicken. I wish I had some magic solution, I am dealing with a similar issue now. You'll pretty much have to keep them separated. My dogs, and most others I've seen, won't attack chickens in front of their master if they've been told not to, but when they know you are gone... I am trying using a shock collar and being out of sight, kind of the unseen hand guiding them. I hope it works. Good luck to you.

 

[FortCluck]

We had a hawk that came in and took one of our chickens, but the chicken fought the hawk and it dropped it. The chicken is still alive about 4 months later and doing very well, but if your chickens fight the hawk, they will have missing feathers. Our chicken had a huge gaping hole and its skin with several feathers missing. Hawks have very large talons that will tear through skin.

We have strung up fishing line across our chicken run area (4,000+ SQ FT), we have not seen another hawk since doing that.

Once a hawk sees prey, it will try to get it for a very long time. It took about two weeks for the hawk to stop circling around our house in the morning looking for food.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Most hawks will just eat the heads of your chickens. They don't take the bodies of normal sized chickens. The story from @cmom is purely frightening... never ever heard of a hawk doing that. The only thing I can imagine in that case was the hawk had convinced itself it was fight or flight and it had to fight.

Here's a common dead chicken checklist:

 

[Chicken Heel]

Yes. We have many hawks here. Sharp shinned hawks have been spotted

On a couple of occasions, I have witnessed Sharp shinned hawks tearing chickens chests open by them flipping backwards with their talons. These were bantam/game mix birds that my mother-in-law had.

 

[cmom]

It was a big Red Tail hawk. It mostly just killed the birds. No heads were missing. The hawk was in the pen until I got it out. I have never had anything happen like that before. The dead birds total 18. I found 3 more dead in the coop this morning, I suspect from injuries. I did check the birds over somewhat but they were quite freaked out so I wanted to let them calm down some. I was gone for a few hours for a Dr. appointment and some errands. I never suspected I would come home to that. I did go around the coops and pens again this morning to look for any breaches but didn't find any place. I did see a coyote by the coops on my game cameras last night.

 

[cmom]

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry, cmom. I didn't think this would ever happen either, although we've never had a hawk trapped inside. How awful!
Mary

 

[sourland]

@cmom sorry for the losses.

 

[termeerchick]

Awe I am so sorry. I know your pain. Last night I had a raccoon get my favorite chicken. We spent all last weekend making a whole new chicken coop because it took two of my chickens a few weeks ago. The raccoon killed her and tried to pull her through the holes of the chain link fence. We had planned on and still plan on securing it with chicken wire over the chain link fence this weekend. We were one day late and I am sooo sad and upset about it.