Will hawks attack in the summer? This is my first year with my chickens. I like to free-range my chickens but I have learned not to free-range in the winter. Every day now there is a hawk in my backyard waiting for the chickens to come out. Will i have to worry about hawks in the summer? How can I keep hawks away from my backyard?
we have Hawks in our area too. They come around all year - but our weather is fairly mild all year. They can be bold. One swooped down upon the chickens with me in the yard until he saw me and quickly veered away. We've been trying the following and it seems to help - put a boom box in the backyard and play your favorite music fairly loudly. The sound should tell the Hawks that the chickens are not alone.
I do not know how to keep them away but I do know that last summer a hawk took all six of my red pyle old english game bantams. So I recommend not letting them out unless you are home and can keep an I on them
Does a hawk need to eat in the summer? The majority of hawks are too small to bother chickens, but if you have one of the large hawks that does kill chickens living in your area, the only really workable solution is to keep your birds in a safe pen with a cover. Then stand there and supervise them any time you let them out. Other than that, you must simply count on losing a few birds if you intend to free range them. Once a predator has located a source of a large, tasty, and very easy meal, he will be back for more. You might have a large hawk with no interest in chickens until winter when his favorite prey animals were hard to come by. He might try a chicken if he were hungry enough. But once he discovers that he can kill chickens and that they are very easy and all gathered up for him in one place, he will be back.
