Hawk sitting in backyard, eyeing birds in tractor....

[Oliver Douglas]

Wife alerted me, said she thought there was a drone circling the house....wasn't wearing her glasses at the time...then she heard a hawk somewhere in the backyard orchard. Went out to find a hawk on the ground, looking at my four 10 week old chooks. He took to the sky immediately, but it took a while for the chickens to come out of their frozen poses on the other side of the tractor. Never saw a hawk up close and personal like that, got within five or six feet of the little bugger. Pretty good sized bird. If I had let them free range, I would be out a chicken right now. Glad I built the tractor. Next time I will release the hound and save myself a walk.

 

[klohman]

Yikes! How scary, I'm always worried about the same thing. Around here we call them the chicken hawks. We use our dogs as protection too, they sure know what we mean when we say "go get it!" as we let them out. They are labradors so they wouldn't hurt a fly, but the prey never knows that!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

..... Went out to find a hawk on the ground, looking at my four 10 week old chooks. He took to the sky immediately, but it took a while for the chickens to come out of their frozen poses on the other side of the tractor....

Hopefully that will dissuade people from believing the "Grim" fairy tail that hawks are the lords and masters of everything feathered. They actually have more in common with raccoons. It is exceedingly dangerous for a Red Tailed Hawk weighing 1 1/2 to 4 pounds to "wrasel" around on the ground with a chicken that may outweigh the hawk by 3 or more times.

Falcons however are the lords and masters of everything feathered, except maybe for eagles. Hawks are high on falcons' menu

 

[Oliver Douglas]

Now that our little Rottweiler/Shepherd dog has figured out that our chickens are off the menu, she just walks around the tractor while the chickens follow her. Our new regimen is to leave the gate to the orchard open at night when the chickens are snug in their coop, and give the dog free range. My wife is up late at night and will let the dog out if she hears a commotion. All you have to say is "get it" and off our doggie goes. Woe to the raccoon or possum that dares trespassing. Dog runs like a greyhound. 65 pounds of "licking" fury...but they don't know that. Wonder if raccoon poop makes good fertilizer...I'm sure they will leave some in our yard once they mess around here...

 

[thegawd]

racoon poop is full of some of the worst nasties around... as far as raptors go theres not much we can really do about them except lock up our birds. my sop birds are locked up and my mutts free range. if a raptor gets one I lock up all my birds for 3 days in hopes that the raptor will move onto other hunting grounds.

good luck

Al