Hawk problem

[oscar 1102]

Hi, Oscar here. We have a hawk and crow problem. Just lost one hen about 6 months old, she had wry neck but could almost fly and she could eat and drink. Think a hawk might have carried her off, also, missing our 6 month old American game rooster same family. He was healthy and strong and could fly . See no signs off disruption , but they are missing and the others from their group seemed traumatized. They did not even come for treats. We have a lot of chickens , some roosters, and some baby chicks, about two months old. We do let them free range. Have the fake owls, and had pie tins up but most are missing. Could there be another animal around? Killed a snake last week that was stuck in the cage that our hen is sitting on eggs. It sits about 4 to 5 feet off ground. We are really sad, what can we do? A dog or guineas maybe? Thanks

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

There's really very little you can do to deter hawks that actually WORKS, other than keeping your birds confined, and providing adequate cover for them to hide.

It's just a reality of life that if you let birds free range, they are at risk from hawks

 

[sourland]

There's really very little you can do to deter hawks that actually WORKS, other than keeping your birds confined, and providing adequate cover for them to hide.

It's just a reality of life that if you let birds free range, they are at risk from hawks

X 2 It's a reality.

 

[oscar 1102]

Thank you. A few weeks ago, I did hang those plastic containers with moth ball stuff inside , it is a hard disc kind of like a toilet bowl cleaner thing. I hung them around and the smell goes through the air. We probably have a wild cat out here too. I will get more. Thanks for advice.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Being an old school kind of guy I prefer old school solutions to life's problems. Therefore I may act lets say more proactively than some of the other people on this forum. Just say that it fits my situation better than paper machete decoys or CDs blowing in the wind.

 

[centrarchid]

Hi, Oscar here. We have a hawk and crow problem. Just lost one hen about 6 months old, she had wry neck but could almost fly and she could eat and drink. Think a hawk might have carried her off, also, missing our 6 month old American game rooster same family. He was healthy and strong and could fly . See no signs off disruption , but they are missing and the others from their group seemed traumatized. They did not even come for treats. We have a lot of chickens , some roosters, and some baby chicks, about two months old. We do let them free range. Have the fake owls, and had pie tins up but most are missing. Could there be another animal around? Killed a snake last week that was stuck in the cage that our hen is sitting on eggs. It sits about 4 to 5 feet off ground. We are really sad, what can we do? A dog or guineas maybe? Thanks

What evidence do you have that hawk is involved?

Game pullet with wry neck should have been culled so a favor was rendered there.

I have lots of hawks and take a proactive approach like chickengeorgeto and I loose very few birds to hawks. A small percentage of my birds (~12) are free-range all the time and a another 40 are free-range during day so hawks have a reason to visit but I do make their efforts more difficult.

To help with pointers with respect to hawks, provide a picture or two showing setup where birds range.

 

[littleoak]

Have to agree with centrarchid about the predator. What you have described so far, could be any predator. Usually you will find feathers or body parts if a hawk was big enough to carry a half grown game rooster.

 

[oscar 1102]

Thank you, we are really confused what it could be. In this case there were no feathers or anything. We have lost chicks before but there were feathers. We check on them often and have pie tins around etc. Going to get scare crows today. Also, we have a brooding hen, lost a nest about three months ago, something attacked the nest, anyway, we have her in her own cage , secure, she has four eggs missing and was going crazy yesterday, a week ago there was a snake in between the wire and wood, we killed it. Now with these eggs gone, cannot figure out how a snake could have gotten in, could she be eating her own eggs? They should be hatching in a week.

 

[centrarchid]

She could be eating her own eggs but generally that is not done once incubation is well underway unless they were damaged somehow. Consider getting hens to nest in an elevated location to prevent smaller critter / snake caused egg loss.