Hawk threat....

[Pyro01]

Lol, as I said, they might attack it head on.

 

[coop-er]

Yes, I have noticed the same hawks in the same areas around our property. Many of the farms around here seem to have resident hawks that hunt in the same areas daily. That is why I was hoping this one would move on if it doesn't get a free meal in my yard.

 

[Fancypants1]

The one thing you have to realize is hawks are opportunistic hunters. While they might never bother your chickens, if a hawk is hungry enough because it can't seem to catch a rabbit, it will go after something bigger than what it's used to. Once it's successful, a switch flips in their brain that this is an acceptable prey item, it was easy enough to catch and it allowed them to crop up on it. Some hawks just go after anything and everything it thinks it can catch, I've have falconer friends who had birds like that, my own hawk was quite reserved when it came to hunting squirrels. I lost him for 2.5 hours on a hunt on Christmas Eve, and found him under a giant log with a squirrel he caught. After that he would bolt at any squirrel he saw.

Most hawks will go to roost about 5-20 minutes before sunset, but you can never really know what one might be thinking if it spots a chicken and it's hungry.

Can a hawk (Red Tail or Coopers Hawk - I think those are the most common in Massachusetts) pick up a chicken and fly off with it?

 

[keesmom]

Can a hawk (Red Tail or Coopers Hawk - I think those are the most common in Massachusetts) pick up a chicken and fly off with it?

I have had both kill chickens. They never flew off with their victims, instead eating them where they were caught.

 

[RPAtkins12]

I had a redtail hawk kill, pluck the feathers completely and eat my 4-5 lb duck where it was caught to find the remains left only the skeleton, head and feet. I removed all that remained including the feathers...the hawk hung around for three weeks before finally moving on. I kept my ducks penned in, day and night during that time!

 

[Pyro01]

As said earlier, Redtails and Coopers will not fly off with a full grown chicken or duck. They'll usually eat them on the spot, anything quail-pigeon sized is about as big a prey item they are capable of flying off with.