Hawk Help Needed

[Ginger78]

We have a large yard in a suburban neighborhood. We’ve had chickens (5yrs) and never predator problems during the day. We have two dogs and they free range with the dogs during the day. 2 weeks ago I let them out at 6am like I always do and one was taken by a hawk. We’ve had 2 weeks to investigate and we are pretty sure. We now let them out later in the day and spend more time out back. Tonight we were out back and saw 6 hawks peering into our yard. We put our girls to bed but we also have smaller chickens that we let roam when we are out. We have 3 scare crows, 1 owl and a ton of shiny objects. Any advice? We want to go to back to normal and we are being very cautious yet the hawks seem to know about us. I’d love to get back to having my birds in the yard. The hawks perch on an electrical tower behind our property so we can’t do much about that.

 

[KatAnn]

Once the hawk knows the food in there they will always come back till there is either no more or you put something in the way of them getting to them. We had to do bird netting due to how many Hawks live around us. Could you put bird netting up like from tree to tree so they can still free range?

 

[Ginger78]

Thank you! We have a large yard with lawn. Would you cover it with netting then remove when you mow?

 

[centrarchid]

We have a large yard in a suburban neighborhood. We’ve had chickens (5yrs) and never predator problems during the day. We have two dogs and they free range with the dogs during the day. 2 weeks ago I let them out at 6am like I always do and one was taken by a hawk. We’ve had 2 weeks to investigate and we are pretty sure. We now let them out later in the day and spend more time out back. Tonight we were out back and saw 6 hawks peering into our yard. We put our girls to bed but we also have smaller chickens that we let roam when we are out. We have 3 scare crows, 1 owl and a ton of shiny objects. Any advice? We want to go to back to normal and we are being very cautious yet the hawks seem to know about us. I’d love to get back to having my birds in the yard. The hawks perch on an electrical tower behind our property so we can’t do much about that.

Did you find the chicken killed by hawk? If not, then almost certainly kill not by a hawk.

 

[cmom]

Thank you! We have a large yard with lawn. Would you cover it with netting then remove when you mow?

Depending on the size of the area you want to put netting over, it would probably be a bit of a pain putting it up and taking it down. I don't free range anymore. I have had too many losses from predators. Eventually when free ranging the birds will be discovered and picked off by a variety of predators. I have large pens for my birds which are covered with heavy duty netting.

 

[centrarchid]

Depending on the size of the area you want to put netting over, it would probably be a bit of a pain putting it up and taking it down. I don't free range anymore. I have had too many losses from predators. Eventually when free ranging the birds will be discovered and picked off by a variety of predators. I have large pens for my birds which are covered with heavy duty netting.

2 weeks ago I let them out at 6am like I always do and one was taken by a hawk.


Miss-diagnosis can lead to expense that does not correct problem.

 

[cmom]

I have had that happen too. One time I was out in our blueberries and one of the birds followed me out. I was less than 10 feet away from her when a hawk came down and grabbed her. I went hysterical and the hawk dropped her but she was dead. Another time I had some chicks around a couple of months old in a temporary pen next to a pad my DH was working on, again he was right next to the little pen and a hawk swooped down and grabbed a chick. Lessons learned the hard way. Both times it happened very fast with no time to really react.

 

[cmom]

I have only had issues with the netting when I ran short and put up some crappy netting. It wasn't what I thought it was and I should have returned it, but I put it up anyway and an owl went through it and killed a bird. I put up another piece of the crappy netting because that was all I had at the time and the owl went through it again and killed another bird. I thought the netting might deter any aerial predators. I put another piece of the crappy netting up and moved the birds to another coop and put a camera up and the owl came back and went through the netting again. I had ordered some good netting and replaced the crappy netting and the owl came back and tried to go through the replaced good netting again but this time got caught in the netting. We managed to get it out and into a cage. I called some wildlife people and they came and got it.

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

I have had that happen too. One time I was out in our blueberries and one of the birds followed me out. I was less than 10 feet away from her when a hawk came down and grabbed her. I went hysterical and the hawk dropped her but she was dead. Another time I had some chicks around a couple of months old in a temporary pen next to a pad my DH was working on, again he was right next to the little pen and a hawk swooped down and grabbed a chick. Lessons learned the hard way. Both times it happened very fast with no time to really react.

That’s the unfortunate reality of it. When a hawk targets its prey, and comes down at it the damage is most likely done and no reaction could change the out come. To your other previous post, we don’t free range either, too many varmits if all kinds can deplete a flock fairly quickly, makes no sense to me to feed the wild animals.

 

[centrarchid]

And as focus continues to be on a hawk, the fox keeps coming in and taking chickens.