Ok so I have 2 red tailed hawk nesting pair on my property, one is around 1,500 feet away from the coop and the other is only like 100 feet from it, right behind it. I have had no hawk deaths yet this year 
I will call the far away pair pair A because they have been around for years, the close one will be pair B because they are new this year. Well anyways the 2 pairs fought a lot a few weeks ago. I think pair A is mad that pair B moved in so close. Their fights are weird, the two pair slowly circle up into the sky and try to gain height on each other, once one bird is a good distance above the other one he dives down and tries to knock 1 from the other pair out. In the most recent fight Male A dived at Male B and B responded by also diving downward to escape, they went down for a few seconds and then A stopped the dive and then B stopped. Soon after Female A did the same to female B. This is what all the fights I have seen looked like. They have stopped now.
Pair A seems to win every encounter but has still not pushed pair B from their nesting spot. To further add to the drama a massive murder of crows has moved in and constantly mobs both pairs. The crows have had no effect on the hawks and they honestly couldn't care less so yeah I guess crows might be slightly overrated...
So my question is, do Red Tailed hawks hunt near the nest site? I ask this because I have not had a single hawk attack yet. I do have 3 roosters and 2 cockerels, are they really just that effective at alerting the hens to the hawk's presence? I let my birds free range a lot and the hawks are always circling around just above the trees next to the coop, or they are sitting up in the trees preening themselves. I know experienced red tails will not attempt a hunt if their prey is aware of them so maybe they just never try? And I know these guys are effective chicken hunters, my neighbors have 6 hens and lost 3 of them in the same day to hawk attacks, 2 of them were for sure pair B, the other they did not see, they just found a big chicken feather donut on the ground and no hen. Attack 3 was definitely a red tail attack though because it was able to lift a heavy Jersey giant up and out of there.
And no, my neighbors do not have a rooster.
So are my roosters just destroying the hawks chance of hunting or do the hawks just not like to hunt around the nest site? I remember hearing something about harpy eagles not hunting around the nest and golden eagles because it draws other predators to the area and they do not want to risk a predator finding the nest. The neighbor's coop is about the same distances from pair B as mine is from Pair A.
I will call the far away pair pair A because they have been around for years, the close one will be pair B because they are new this year. Well anyways the 2 pairs fought a lot a few weeks ago. I think pair A is mad that pair B moved in so close. Their fights are weird, the two pair slowly circle up into the sky and try to gain height on each other, once one bird is a good distance above the other one he dives down and tries to knock 1 from the other pair out. In the most recent fight Male A dived at Male B and B responded by also diving downward to escape, they went down for a few seconds and then A stopped the dive and then B stopped. Soon after Female A did the same to female B. This is what all the fights I have seen looked like. They have stopped now.Pair A seems to win every encounter but has still not pushed pair B from their nesting spot. To further add to the drama a massive murder of crows has moved in and constantly mobs both pairs. The crows have had no effect on the hawks and they honestly couldn't care less so yeah I guess crows might be slightly overrated...
So my question is, do Red Tailed hawks hunt near the nest site? I ask this because I have not had a single hawk attack yet. I do have 3 roosters and 2 cockerels, are they really just that effective at alerting the hens to the hawk's presence? I let my birds free range a lot and the hawks are always circling around just above the trees next to the coop, or they are sitting up in the trees preening themselves. I know experienced red tails will not attempt a hunt if their prey is aware of them so maybe they just never try? And I know these guys are effective chicken hunters, my neighbors have 6 hens and lost 3 of them in the same day to hawk attacks, 2 of them were for sure pair B, the other they did not see, they just found a big chicken feather donut on the ground and no hen. Attack 3 was definitely a red tail attack though because it was able to lift a heavy Jersey giant up and out of there.
And no, my neighbors do not have a rooster.
So are my roosters just destroying the hawks chance of hunting or do the hawks just not like to hunt around the nest site? I remember hearing something about harpy eagles not hunting around the nest and golden eagles because it draws other predators to the area and they do not want to risk a predator finding the nest. The neighbor's coop is about the same distances from pair B as mine is from Pair A.
