Hawk vs. Rooster

[Rooster Runner]

Hey everyone!

I recently put pullets out in my coop, so they're still pretty small, but my rooster has been hanging out with them and giving them the tour of the property. A few days ago while they were free ranging, a hawk swooped to snatch the smallest pullet, but my rooster got the little ones into the woods and took the brunt of the attack. Since the hawk was expecting a small pullet, he/she wasn't able to lift my 7 pound rooster. By the time I got outside (I saw all this from the window) the hawk had already gotten away. My rooster, Smokey was standing at the edge of the woods, scanning the skies. I checked him out, and he had feathers missing from one shoulder, and a small scratch on his wing. He was OK. I scoped the area, and found that they must've had a little scuffle. There were black and gray feathers from Smokey, and white and brown from the hawk. All my chickens are healthy thanks to my rooster, but I don't feel very safe letting them free range anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions to stop this from happening again?

 

[sourland]

I have tried many of the suggested ideas and have never been able to deter a determined hawk. I've even had attacks while monitoring free ranging. Good luck.

 

[cmom]

Sorry, when you free range that is the risk you take.

 

[RoosterML]

Hey everyone!

I recently put pullets out in my coop, so they're still pretty small, but my rooster has been hanging out with them and giving them the tour of the property. A few days ago while they were free ranging, a hawk swooped to snatch the smallest pullet, but my rooster got the little ones into the woods and took the brunt of the attack. Since the hawk was expecting a small pullet, he/she wasn't able to lift my 7 pound rooster. By the time I got outside (I saw all this from the window) the hawk had already gotten away. My rooster, Smokey was standing at the edge of the woods, scanning the skies. I checked him out, and he had feathers missing from one shoulder, and a small scratch on his wing. He was OK. I scoped the area, and found that they must've had a little scuffle. There were black and gray feathers from Smokey, and white and brown from the hawk. All my chickens are healthy thanks to my rooster, but I don't feel very safe letting them free range anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions to stop this from happening again?

What happened is what should have happened. You rooster did his job very well. He sure is a keeper.

 

[Rooster Runner]

Thanks everyone for your help! I really appreciate it! I'll put out some more bushes, and see if I can get some of those fancy hawk repellent things, and I'll let you all know how it plays out!

 

[Rooster Runner]

Thank you all for the compliments, and tips, I hope I can stop these incidents from reoccurring!

 

[Hei 20]

Hey everyone!

I recently put pullets out in my coop, so they're still pretty small, but my rooster has been hanging out with them and giving them the tour of the property. A few days ago while they were free ranging, a hawk swooped to snatch the smallest pullet, but my rooster got the little ones into the woods and took the brunt of the attack. Since the hawk was expecting a small pullet, he/she wasn't able to lift my 7 pound rooster. By the time I got outside (I saw all this from the window) the hawk had already gotten away. My rooster, Smokey was standing at the edge of the woods, scanning the skies. I checked him out, and he had feathers missing from one shoulder, and a small scratch on his wing. He was OK. I scoped the area, and found that they must've had a little scuffle. There were black and gray feathers from Smokey, and white and brown from the hawk. All my chickens are healthy thanks to my rooster, but I don't feel very safe letting them free range anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions to stop this from happening again?

You might have set up your run with a net.

 

[Hei 20]

hmm not a bad idea, I'm working on something like that. But is there anything I can do that will protect them from hawks while they're free ranging?

 

[Rooster Runner]

We free range in an orchard where's there's plenty of cover and also lean old wooden doors on their sides against a concrete block wall to provide additional cover for our chickens from predators (which right now are large, feral cats ugh). I read somewhere that hawks only like to land where there's open space and so far this has worked for us. Can you set up some hiding spots for your birds? Also, what a cool rooster you have!

Thank you! Yes, he's protected my flock from multiple predators, and he even beat up a fully grown male raccoon, still not sure how he did it! My property is surrounded by woods, which my roo used for protection, but I will set up a few more bushes, it happened on top of my sand mound, so it was a very open space.

 

[Rooster Runner]

LOL, made a little mistake there, expand that quote to see my reply.