Hawks

[gclarrot]

So I’ve had my new 7 week old ladies in their run and coop for the past two weeks.

Completely covered in hardware cloth, apron, and reinforced. It’s chicken Fort Knox.


But we have some visitors....
We’ve had two hawks circling our property for the last week. Along with being in our backyard and fence. Sitting. Flying. Circling.

The girls hear the hawks they run into the coop. It isn’t a big deal as our coop is 3 walls, opened into the run (we live in Florida so it has lots of ventilation and shade).


Will they eventually go away if they finally realize there isn’t going to be a dinner feast?

No idea how to handle it. My dogs bark at them but they stay just on the fence when they’re in the yard.

 

[azygous]

They should eventually pack up and leave. If you have the time and energy, you can run at them banging on a pan. Loud noises can discourage them from hanging around.

Here where I live, I have hawks that have been very bold in the past at attacking my chickens, sometimes when they are right at my feet.A couple years ago, I decided to get tough on my mice problem. Almost every day, I catch one or two mice, maybe three, and I place the bodies in the same spot for my "cleanup crew". That would be my neighborhood crows and ravens.

This has encouraged these big black birds to hang around the vicinity. They know that I will be putting out these delicacies every morning for them. The other day, there weren't any mice in my traps, so I placed a tiny hand full of cracked corn and BOSS in place of the usual mice offerings. It was accepted.

Now, with these protectors always on duty, if a hawk blunders onto the scene, the ravens and crows attack the hawk in the sky in a vicious squadron of fury with me cheering from the ground. Of course, small chicks shouldn't be let out to free range until they are of a size that crows and ravens no longer look upon them as snacks.

 

[speedy2020]

Tie a few old CDs and give it a try. It works for me.