Hawks

[Cochins Elite]

I live near a national forest and the numbers of hawks is huge I just moved hear a few months ago.
I just read the article on eagles that had good info. It's funny to because I have always admired eagles there so majestic.
when I was a kid I would try to do Eagle calls and I can still do it, sometimes it sounds messed up but a lot of times it is rite on so when all these hawks started coming around eyeing my chickens. I spread my arms wide and gave them my best eagles call and it works but when I'm not around they come back. Anyone have any other suggestions besides the CD trick?

 

[sourland]

I wish that I had an answer to the hawk situation. Covered, hawk tight pens are the only guarantee. They put me out of business as far as flying pigeons. Some roosters, game roosters in particular, will fight a hawk if it attacks hens.

 

[Cochins Elite]

Let mine free range. Sorry to hear about your bad luck

 

[dekel18042]

I live near a national forest and the numbers of hawks is huge I just moved hear a few months ago.
I just read the article on eagles that had good info. It's funny to because I have always admired eagles there so majestic.
when I was a kid I would try to do Eagle calls and I can still do it, sometimes it sounds messed up but a lot of times it is rite on so when all these hawks started coming around eyeing my chickens. I spread my arms wide and gave them my best eagles call and it works but when I'm not around they come back. Anyone have any other suggestions besides the CD trick?

What kind of hawks are prevalent in your area? I've read and found that hawks tend to leave the larger breed chickens alone. I've had hawks come down onto trees and look at my flock but never come all the way down. The last two unsuccessful hawk attacks I had, in both cases the hawks went after juvenile birds, once a ten week old Easter egger and she dived under an evergreen and once at some young Jersey giants who also got under greenery.
I've had roosters stand out in the open screaming a warning while the hens hid.
If you're near a woods hopefully you have trees, shrubbery, decks, plants or other places birds can hide (Covered runs work nicely too.)
People in our area often free range chickens in a pasture with goats or horses or cattle. Having a dog out and nearby can help.
You can also encourage crows and blue jays which annoy hawks,
I've read several articles that call Iowa blue roosters hawk fighters.
Now if only I could find a fool proof way of deterring foxes.

They're both sneaky and smart.

 

[pfields]

We had to cover our entire backyard with netting. The hawks still fly over looking for a way in. After three attacks if we didn't have the netting I don't think I would have any chickens left.

 

[pfields]

All three of our hens that were attacked were full grown. We were able to save them but they had some pretty bad wounds. I was in the backyard not 20 feet away when the first hen was attacked. The last attack happen when I went inside the coop to clean. It's like it was watching me and knew right when to fly down and attack. It tried to fly away with her but dropped her right inside the fence.

 

[Cochins Elite]

Dang that sucks. I have not had an attack yet and crows are awesome I have some that live in my pasture and have seen seen them try to attack and Chase them at super speed as soon as one comes across my fence line. They also go crazy yelling, and alerting me.

 

[Cochins Elite]

Chicken hawks, red shoulder hawks, and a grey hawks are what I've seen but I think there's more

 

[centrarchid]

Chicken hawks, red shoulder hawks, and a grey hawks are what I've seen but I think there's more

Red-shouldered Hawks likely not going to be a problem. What do you mean by "chicken hawk", Red-tailed or Cooper's Hawk? I am not familiar with anything called a grey hawk but adult Coopers are blue-gray. Management can vary as a function of hawk species and type of chickens you have.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I wish that I had an answer to the hawk situation. Covered, hawk tight pens are the only guarantee. They put me out of business as far as flying pigeons. Some roosters, game roosters in particular, will fight a hawk if it attacks hens.

I watched a metal hunting show filmed on an East German WWII battle field. They dug up two Russian sub-machine guns, one unexploded hand grenade, several hand guns, a lot of cartage cases, many German uniform buttons, and small coins, but the one metal item they frond the most of was the aluminum leg bands off of homing pigeons that had been taken and eaten by raptors, likely by Falcons.

Hawks are one of the big reasons that chicken farmers who depend on poultry to earn a living must have $1,000,000s of dollars worth of poultry houses and other equipment in place just to protect their chickens from predators like hawks and from diseases carried by wildlife or wild birds.

Like sourland and I have mentioned before, man or woman fighting roosters for that matter are made and not born. If you overly alarm his hens that is all the reason that a rooster needs to flog you or attack your children on sight. Don't take it out on the poor rooster, he is only doing what nature intended.