Hawk with baby Spotted in area Have questions,

[MMPoultryFarms]

So I was in the brooder house. And I walked outside today and there was this hawk above my yard high up s/he was circling about 3 circles I would say. (I free range all my ducks geese turkeys and chickens) All my brooder hen house and breeding areas are covered but my duel purpose meaties are free ranged. After the 3 high circles I got my pole as he swooped lower and lower till he was roof level with the house. The hawk stick I made is about 4 foot long with really shiny silver tape all around it. I chased h/she around the yard screaming obsenitys and swinging the stick at h/she (keep in mind he was 14-17 feet above ground I know I can't kill them but I do love the 3 S's of farming.) Anyhow After he made me run 4 laps around my property h/she flew off into the pastures north of the house. All the suddon out of no where a small bitty hawk is following h/she.
I quickly Pulled out the fishing line made several zig zags across the yard and put tons and tons of Cd's up everywhere. My question is Withh they be back or did I do a good enough Job to assure them Food is hard to come by on my place? Will they come back and test me or should I keep all the birds on lock down for a while? Its 106 here today and feels like 118 I am afraid if i pen them up they might die from heat? any advice would be appreciated thanks.

 

[FF]

ok. First of all, please don't anybody take me the wrong way but I absolutely hate hawks. Despise those creatures. If there wasn't a fine or jail time every hawk around here would have a bullet in it.If it was up to me I would put a bullet in every single hawk that came near my property. They stay away from me I have nothing against it. Live free and away from me. I have had a hawk kill 53 of my chickens. 3 of those being my pets that I have spent a long time with. All together I have lost $600 because of a hawk(Thats 2rolls of netting and show quality chickens, laying hens and all the feed that I used for them). He has busted through netting and everything. And he will do it to you too. Those cds will not keep that hawk away. He knows where food is. He's coming back no matter what. Might be a day might be 2 weeks. A hawk will never forget where food is. Never. So your best bet is to get some netting and put over your run. Thats the only thing I have managed to do. Or if you live far enough out in the country, shoot at it but don't kill it with a loud rifle. I f you do that it will scare it off. He will stay gone for a while. then hes right back. Thats the best thing to do temporaly. But permanently netting is the only thing. The will pick your hens like nothing. Then you will be like me. Over 50 chickens and your hard work and time gone. wasted.

Now I know you hawk lovers are probably looking at me as inconsiderate person. If you are I can understand your point of view. they don't know any better and its just nature. I understand. But you also kind of have to look at it from my point of view too. Around here theres no rabbits. I used to go get a head of cabbage at the mom and pop store and give it to "my" rabbits(just little wild gray rabbits that came in for food). I really enjoyed them. They even got used to me enough to where I could get pretty close to them. Maybe 15 feet and they would still eat. But the hawk population got so overcrowded that all the rabbits(usually around 4-6 at feeding time) just got picked off one by one. I onced saw 4 yes 4 hawks circiling at the same destination. Now the rabbits are gone and the fox population is way down.

Anyways, I'm done with my little speech to my fellow chicken raisers. Good luck to you MMpoultryfarms with this problem and I hope you want be like me and have all these chickens gone.

Dusty (FF)

 

[midget_farms]

We have a nest 2 doors down. I free range my chickens & have only lost 1 bird in the past 3 years. I don't use nets & I dont do anything else for that matter. However, I have a couple of good roosters who keep an eye out & lots of cover for the birds to run to when he alerts.

I see hawks all the time & have even seen them catch wild birds in my yard. But I have not had too much trouble from them.

That said - we have tons of rabbits squirls etc so we are not the only food source.

Best of luck.

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Sigh I am not sure how to cover 5 acres of land with netting sounds to me like its time for the good old fashion method. Open a shotgun shell emptying out all the buck shot and filling it with rock salt and shooting at anything that doesnt cluck quack or honk thank goodness the hawks here are not so bad I have been here for 3 years and this is my 3rd sighting around the house I have ALOT of birds that usually keep hawks away but today they all seemed to vanish Even the lonley dove that has coo'ed on my roof for a year was gone today. I expect to lose some chickens to predators free ranging. but I don't want the hawk to make my house a daily meal spot if I can help it.\\
I have read alot of suggestions today Some methods I have and am using and the one that I like the most But isnt gonna happen till next year Is shoot at it with roman candles

I was told the gamerangers have pyrotecnic traps simular but I have no clue. If anyone has anyother suggestions I am Open for them all I want to stay within the laws and protect my flock best I can. and most important I dont want anything to have to lose its life Until Its time for dinner for the family.

 

[The Tinman]

Shoot bottle rockets at them

 

[FF]

uhhh well........ Have a deep pocket?

just joking. 5 acres is a bit too much. But please take this in to consideration, that hawk knows theres food. He will be back. Unless he is killed or unable to fly he will be back. He will take your chickens one by one of your property each day and sometimes every other day or 2 and theres not a thing you can do about it but basically sit there and watch your money, time and your favorite chicken get grabbed by the back with 3'' claws flop around and suffer for 2-3 minutes while the hawk waits for it to calm down and sometimes eat it alive. Fun Fun Fun. I honestly don't know what to tell you unless you hire somebody to sit in a chair, drink coke all day with a .22 beside him and when a hawk come around tell him to scare it off. Those cds want work. Done tryed that. Along with a jacket washed in alot of laundry detergent, scare crow and netting. I now have very thick netting over mine. I couldn't even tear it with my hands. It's like rope but it is very strong. Paid $70 for a 50'x50' roll on ebay. Now I can watch them blasted things dive into my netting, get tangled up and sometimes die while trying and call the game warden to come and pick up this blame thing. Dont touch a hawk even if you didn't kill. Big time trouble. Why because they have "proof" that you "killed" the hawk. Whether you did or not. Leave it alone and let nature do its thing or call the game warden. Oh and NEVER KEEP A HAWK FEATHER OR TALON WITH YOU.Even if you found it. Thats sometimes trouble.

 

[FF]

Oh and the fireworks thing does work.Bottle rockets, fire crackers etc. But they will just get scared. they will more than likely come back. Unless you get one of those really big firecrackers and somehow "accidently" throw one up in the air where tehrs a hawk that you have never seen before and it blows his little tale feathers plum off then he might want to keep the rest of his feathers and not come back. Just kind of walk over to the spot wistling like nothing happens, get those feathers and kind of get rid of them off your property some where. then you will be one lucky dude. The hawk will not want to be a naked pink tooth pick with a bunch of dogs, cats and otehr predators around and you will not have to worry about Mr. Hawk again for a long while I hope

 

[Crack N' Egg]

I must be missing something....I know that there are laws prohibiting the killing of hawks, but what I was told was that if it is causing slaughter to 'livestock' you as a 'farmer' have a right to protect.

I have a love/hate relationship with my hawks and fox. The big hawks tend to stay away from my chickens. The baby and young hawks do not. They haven't learned that the rooster will try to kick the poop out of it (literally). Fox have taken 4 of my chickens. Just 3 weeks ago, a mom was teaching her pup to hunt and they took one of my 10 wk old SLW.

Problem with shooting both hawks and fox is they are not x-large targets that are slow. Too difficult to hit.

I'm sorry that you have had such a hard time with them. It truly suck for us free-rangers.

I hope you will find a solution, whatever it may be.

 

[SandyK]

We've been working on my new coop and watched one quite a bit this past week. He/she knows my chickens are there, sits up in the big tree by them with us working right below. We've seen it go by with a rabbit in tow and also a young blue jay with parents following it screaming. He/she would have my chickens no doubt if my 25'x50' run wasn't covered with the heavy duty nylon netting.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have a LOT of hawks - they are usually flying somewhere in the sky when you look up.

I decided to cover my large garden with netting.

When I was in the process of installing the netting, a hawk landed in the middle of the garden. The chickens all dived for cover. I ran outside screaming and scared him off.

It was worth every penny to cover the garden. I could truly free range them, but I chose to free range them INSIDE the garden. Better alive and penned up than dead.

Only trouble is, I chose the cheaper netting that won't take a snow load. So I'll be outside knocking off snow as it falls.