Hawk attacked with me just 20 ft. away! Everyone is O.K.

[ErinG]

I've heard Cooper's Hawks will attack no matter how close you are. I'm glad your babies are okay!

 

[LilChickCoop]

Quote:
I've heard that about Cooper's hawks as well. Anyone with red shoulder hawk problems? I know we have a few near my place.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Had a hawk problem today. It had a white underside, but I was not able to figure out what type of hawk it was.

Any way, my rooster finally did what he was hired to do .

 

[tdgill]

gotta love those roos.... mine taught my dog to watch for hawks also. Funny they seem to know that the crows are no trouble.

 

[2DogsFarm]

Had my first Close Encounter this morning!

It swooped so low I could see its face - either a kestrel or possibly young sharpshinned.

I was feeding the hens some leftover chicken when one sounded an alarm & everyone ran for cover.
Both babies - 11wks now - headed straight for the coop, the hens all hid in the mint patch - smart girls.

I brought the hens into the coop but one is MIA

When I left for work. the 6 accounted for were still in the coop "talking in low voices"
I'm hoping the missing girl was just hiding & will be there when I get home.
There were no signs that she was taken & I'm pretty sure hawk was too small to carry off a 5#+ hen.

Now I'm glad one of my chicks is looking to turn out a rooster!
He sure knew to get out of Dodge ASAP when he heard the alarm - maybe he sounded it?

What amazed me is these are all hatchery chicks except for the babies I got from a friend at 2 days old.
How the heck do they know to be alarmed???

 

[libertychicken]

Hi All. first time poster long time lurker. I'll try to set up my member page tonight - I'm on a business trip.

I lost one of my girls to a hawk Tuesday.

It was a Cooper's hawk - I got a good CLOSE look at it when I came home and found it IN the run (enclosed with hardware cloth, but with the human-door open to the fenced yard so the girls could range) on top of my poor dead Venus. Scary thing is: after I scared the hawk off by throwing rocks and sticks and yelling, it came back and ATTACKED ME! It grabbed the back of my head as I was trying to herd the rest of my terrified flock into the run/coop. Knocked the barrette out of my hair, made me toss my cell phone hard enough that it came apart, and nearly knocked me over. Well I screamed bloody murder but STILL had to throw things - including an empty five gallon bucket - to get the #&$! hawk to fly into the neighbor's yard.

Sadly, the girls are still FREAKED and barely come out of the coop. I've only let them out into the hardware-wrapped run since the attack, not into the yard - I'm working on stringing fishing line all over the top of their part of the yard, close enough that hopefully a hawk won't be able to fly through it - though my husband is threatening to just get a great big net to stretch over, which we may end up doing.

Anyway: I'm hoping part of the reason the girls are staying in the coop is it finally got quite cold this week in Indiana. Supposed to warm back into the 60s this weekend so hopefully they'll get some range time while I'm out there reinforcing the hawk guard.

But take this warning seriously: if you scare a Cooper's hawk off its dinner, it MAY come back and grab you! Best to wear a hard hat and carry a rake to wave around while you clean up the mess!