Hawk problems.

[Trish1974]

There is a fair amount of misinformation out there about hawks. It is NOT illegal to harass hawks, or destroy inactive nests. It is illegal to harass eagles without a depredation permit. It is also possible to get a depredation permit for killing hawks. (Hard, but not impossible) Hawks are only protected by MBTA except for a couple that are on the endangered list.

Wow! You are right. Honestly I disagreed with you until I did my own research. You really do learn something new every day.
http://icwdm.org/handbook/birds/HawksOwls.asp

 

[Jondiesel78]

Wow! You are right. Honestly I disagreed with you until I did my own research. You really do learn something new every day.
http://icwdm.org/handbook/birds/HawksOwls.asp

I would have disagreed with myself yesterday morning. The only problem with a permit is that you can be denied, and then you're on their radar. Is it better just to not get caught and handle it? The county sheriff's office generally has the attitude that you can protect your livestock, so no problem there.

 

[Trish1974]

What state do you live in? The amount of BOPs you are seeing is insane!

 

[Jondiesel78]

What state do you live in? The amount of BOPs you are seeing is insane!

Georgia. About 30 miles south of Atlanta airport.

 

[Trish1974]

Personally, I think the protection of hawks is a little over the top. For instance, a lot of people want to put down feral cat colonies saying they are causing certain bird populations to decline. Well, I have 4 outside cats (a necessity when you live in farm country), and every year I lose more songbirds to Cooper's hawks then I do to my own cats. Plus, IMO, I think red-tailed hawks are darn near overpopulated. At least in my area. If it wasn't for my resident red-shouldered hawk keeping the red-taileds away, I would probably be having losses as well.

 

[Shadrach]

I have 94 chickens in 2 pens. I have wire fence and nylon netting over the top of the entire pens. The netting is zip tied to the vertical wire fencing about every 2 feet, and overlaps by at least a foot. Today I had a Cooper's hawk fight his way in between the fence and netting between 2 zip ties until it got into the pen. Any suggestions other than a 12 gauge?

Buy a reel of galvanized fencing tie wire and thread it through every other hole in the fence catching the nylon top net as you go. That will take care of the gaps. I would do two rows just to make sure.
The bad news is here a goshawk will punch through nylon mesh and chicken wire, often injuring itself in the process. You could try stretching fencing line wire at half metre intervals underneath the nylon mesh. This would at least give the mesh better support.

 

[Jondiesel78]

Personally, I think the protection of hawks is a little over the top. For instance, a lot of people want to put down feral cat colonies saying they are causing certain bird populations to decline. Well, I have 4 outside cats (a necessity when you live in farm country), and every year I lose more songbirds to Cooper's hawks then I do to my own cats. Plus, IMO, I think red-tailed hawks are darn near overpopulated. At least in my area. If it wasn't for my resident red-shouldered hawk keeping the red-taileds away, I would probably be having losses as well.

I agree. I see way to many redtail hawks, but it's always the Cooper's hawks and chicken hawks that give problems.

 

[aart]

Migration time?
Sorry you're having such troubles.
Crazy to have one crawl into the 'gap' like that.

 

[Dona Worry]

I think the 3S protocol is called for, personally.

 

[Al Capon]

Migration time?
Sorry you're having such troubles.
Crazy to have one crawl into the 'gap' like that.

Yeah, migration time. BOP are migrating South and they eventually stack up here in Oklahoma and Texas. In Winter it seems like there's a hawk on every telephone pole, I don't know how any small game makes it.

I applaud your efforts OP, way too many BOP out there, their numbers go unchecked. Hope you can eradicate the offender that's trying to kill your livestock.