Would I be naive to think that the 4 hawks circling overhead in the vicinity of my yard, when my 3 pullets were free-ranging, were just overhead through coincidence, or could they actually see my chickens and were waiting to swoop? The hawks were REALLY really high in the sky, almost to where you could lose sight of them in the clouds, but I'm assuming they've got very good long range vision. I would have sworn I could hear the hawks screech a couple of times--it was the sound that initially made me look upwards. They hung out over my house for about 15 minutes and then drifted away...never lowering in altitude.
My chickens free-range unsupervised in my yard all day. There is plenty of cover in the form of full grown evergreens, a trampoline to run under, backyard play structure, shrubbery etc. I have a super large fenced yard that I would consider a chickens' utopia and can't imagine penning them up during the day (they do get locked up tight after sunset).
In an interesting side note, when my husband came outside to see why I kept staring into the sky, I told him about the 4 hawks and about how this is the first time I had ever heard a real live hawk screech. I tried to imitate the sound best I could, and when I did that, one (and only one) of my chickens dove under a tree. I must make a pretty convincing hawk sound. How would chickens even know such a sound came from a potential predator? And now I'm concerned that my other two chickens didn't seem at all phased by my screech.
My chickens free-range unsupervised in my yard all day. There is plenty of cover in the form of full grown evergreens, a trampoline to run under, backyard play structure, shrubbery etc. I have a super large fenced yard that I would consider a chickens' utopia and can't imagine penning them up during the day (they do get locked up tight after sunset).
In an interesting side note, when my husband came outside to see why I kept staring into the sky, I told him about the 4 hawks and about how this is the first time I had ever heard a real live hawk screech. I tried to imitate the sound best I could, and when I did that, one (and only one) of my chickens dove under a tree. I must make a pretty convincing hawk sound. How would chickens even know such a sound came from a potential predator? And now I'm concerned that my other two chickens didn't seem at all phased by my screech.
