Hawk

[willowbranchfarm]

I have seen the same hawk for a week in my neighbors yard. I'm really scared its going to get my chickens. Hopefully it wont come in my yard when I'm not home.

 

[rollkeeg877]

if its a coopers hawk or a goss hawk and ur chickens are not the size of quail then you should be ok but u could always get a fake owl hawks hate owls and it will leave

 

[willowbranchfarm]

Hmmmm I didnt know that.

 

[Kikiriki]

I have a fake owl in my garden: a hawk alit onto the fence not 3 feet away from it, checking it out. Try to find one that has a bobble head, at least. It needs to move or animals realize something is 'off'...

I leave my dogs out when the chickens are out. Before we adopted him, the farm dog caught a flying hawk in their barn. I have been training him to respond to hawk cries: when I hear one, I say, "bad bird!" and run outside. He now alerts to their cries and goes out without prompting (from the porch). I focused on when they were pretty close and the cries were louder, and he does, too. He does not alert when one is down the road: just in neighboring yards.

I think the hawks would be more likely to go after a full grown chicken if it thought it would be safe to eat right where it killed one, since it could not carry one off. The dogs take that option away. I have no proof of this, except one incident a month ago when a hawk swooped down towards the chicken (the hawk was only 10 feet off the ground) then it just flew away when the dogs moved.

If I did not have the dogs, I would not let my chickens roam unless I was with them.

 

[rollkeeg877]

u need to be carful of ur dogs killing hawks because its illegal to kill predatory birds of any kind charges are huge if caught and even jail time depending on what happened so make sure that ur dogs don't kill the hawk just scare it thats all i do

 

[Mattemma]

I don't think a dog would be an issue unless someone got you on tape encouraging your dogs to attack and kill a dog. Animals get killed by animals all the time.If your dog kills a hawk that lands in the yard while you are inside the house how could you be charged?Generally the fine in up to 10k if a human kills a hawk,and they can prove it.People video tape everything these days,so work under the assumption that someone is watching you!

 

[chickortreat]

I have no doubt that anyone stupid enough to enact a law against killing a killer would attempt to press charges on the dog.....

Uh yep, I think these laws protecting raptors are STUPID. The white man encroached on the American Indian, taking his lands and his heritage, then suffered a moment of nostalgia and decided to make up for it by protecting.......birds. The same system that will take, by force if necessary, land that has been in a family for generations, if for nothing more than a shopping mall or golf course. And yet they tell you that if a raptor kills your chickens, it's YOUR fault. I'm sorry, but my chickens are protected against all threats, foreign or domestic.

They used to hang a man for sealing a horse....on site. There was strangely never a proliferation of horse thieves........

 

[jdywntr]

Raptors are protected because humans decimated their populations by hunting, trapping, poisoning. It is not nostalgia due to what happened to American Indians when this country was founded.

I protect my birds to the best of my ability but I know that if I allow them to range on their own, I am going to suffer losses. It is the price that you pay for making that decision. Domestic chickens are unnatural. They are helpless and in the wild would never have made it as a species. Wild chickens look nothing like most of our domestic species. I think that it is ridiculous to think that we can move into a rural area and set about having animals outside unprotected and then decide to kill any wild animal that is just doing what is in its nature.

To the OP, look into setting up some safe areas for your chickens. Areas for them to take cover, a fake owl, shiny twirling objects (cds, or pie plates) etc.

 

[rollkeeg877]

if its ur dog and ur with it when it kills that hawk then u can be charged for letting YOUR dog kill that hawk when u could have stopped it if your caught doing it but why kill a hawk thats just wrong in every way just get a fake owl or something that will scare it off and not kill it

 

[Oregon Blues]

OP, if you are worried, leave the chickens in a pen with a cover any time you are not there to watch the chickens. The hawk can't kill them if he can't reach them.

The majority of breeds of hawk do not kill chickens, but unless you are sure about what is in the neighborhood, keep your chickens covered and then you won't lose any of them if you happen to have one of the large hawks that will take a chicken on. Then while the hawk is not getting your birds, he will be doing an excellent job for your benefit of eliminating mice, squirrels, and sparrows.

If your birds are loose when no one is home to watch them, you are very likely to lose them, hawk or not. There are many creatures out there that like to eat chicken and will take advantage of unprotected poultry..