Hawk ?

[BrattishTaz]

I had eagles carry two of my full grown roosters away. All I had left of my Australorp was his tail. I was less than a minute behind it but there was nothing I could do. My BO roo fought hard, there were a lot of feathers trailing through the yard. There was no blood in either incident. I thought he was gone forever but about 3 days later my DD and I heard a familiar crow. A man at the end of the street found him injured under the eagle's nest. He had talon marks across his back but recovered well.

 

[LivingRootsFarm]

I am currently having a hawk problem...I have hung cds and fishing line across the range area and put out a hawk decoy which I move around everyday. A couple of weeks ago I had a hawk get one of my hens, but he left the body there. After doing some research one website said that they usually don't carry them away, but do the dive attack and go for the eyes and liver only. So far the cds and decoy have worked, but is alot of work, especially when I have to move the electric fence around for a new forage area. I am thinking of investing in some aviary netting for the top and building a range shelter for when they are to far from the coop to run too....

 

[Prairie Mary]

We have had good luck with stringing wire over the run. Our run is large and so we opted for this rather than netting (and I can still put netting over the wire if need be). We have two large fir trees that we put lag bolts in and strung a single wire between them. We put a heavy duty spring on each end to avoid breakage when the trees move with the wind. From that wire we strung wires perpendicular and at 18" increments down to the fascia on the shop roof. You won't have the same set up of course, but you may be able to do something similar.

This has worked for us 3 years. This year we have more hawks than usual and young pullets out there. So far, so good.

Prairie Mary

 

[Cetawin]

If your boy was the size of an orpington, no hawk carried it off they push 10 lbs easy. Mine at 11 months old is 13 lbs. You are dealing with a canine. It digs, grabbed a roo tail and missed but grabbed a second one...carried the boy off. My vote is coyote, I just lost a 10 lb cochin to one a month ago, it got feathers first and then 10 feet later managed to grab her, it carried her off.

Time to set a fox sized trap, just in case and set a coyote trap.