How to deter a hawk from my ducklings?

[Skye'sDucks]

Can you make shelters in their area? Can be an old table things similar look into predator tape I use it here. Plus mine have plenty of trees bushes to hide under sorry for your losses beautiful muscovies. If the ducklings are 6 weeks old why not let the drake out with them my Muscovy drake has ever tried to mate with a young duckling of course he is going to want to mate with his adult female. but take all eggs away if you do. My want more ducklings

Thank you.

We may try to start transitioning my drake out there with them, since its probably about time anyways. He's fine with the babies, just like I said, its my hen I'm worried about. I don't think he could hurt her, but I don't know.

We'd also probably take the eggs once she has more, as well. I'm a little nervous eating them for the first time (if it happens in the future, which it most likely will! ha) but I know there's a time frame that we can collect the eggs.

We have built some shelters (as you can see they were actually sitting under them this afternoon) I'm thinking the hawk caught them when they were down by the creek (there's steep banks on either side) or while they were sleeping on an open area on top of the bank.

Unless they are always under a shelter or pen or netting, there is always a risk, if you have hawks. Mine roam my yard and I have 2 small dogs that are constantly in and out. But I have had losses to hawks. Large areas are hard to cover, and small areas don’t give birds much room, so it’s kinda a tossup of risk/reward.
My best alarm are my roosters that are in pens but the ducks have to be smart and heed the warning too. They more hiding places and cover they have, the better chance they will have.

Thank you for the reply.

Yeah, I understand that...Sigh...There's only so much we can do to take care of the problem, especially since we don't have dogs.

We have built them a shelter and there's also long grass and bushes they can hide in, but I'm wondering if the hawk just caught them off guard. There was a puff of feathers and sadly some of the duckling across the bank of the creek on Sunday, so the hawk could have caught them off guard while sleeping. (It's one of their favorite places to sit around. Freaked me out when I saw them go back to the exact same spot again after we checked on them! Silly ducks)
The second time, today, there's no duckling in sight so it must have been carried off entirely.

So long story short yes, they have coverage, and really its not much better in our smaller yard. If we see the hawk again or lose another duckling I might have to see about moving them around, since I know we have more bushes in our yard...

I don't know if my hen and the ducklings are smart enough to run when the birds start squawking and freaking out in the surrounding trees, but they do go off when a hawk is nearby, but that's really the only alarm they have short of them noticing the hawk.

it seams the hawk leaves the full grown ones alone? Mabye you need a roofed run just untill their full sized. Hawkes are very smart and wont leave now that they know theres adorable little snacks.

By the way they are sooooo cute!!

Ah thank you! They really do have some beautiful coloring.

Well, I only have one full grown duck out there with them, the mother. (My drake is separated, but he's WAY too big for a hawk) The rest are still barely six weeks old, although some are bigger than the others. I haven't really been able to tell which sized ducks the hawk is taking.

And I realized the hawk might start coming back when it finds out they are a food source. I don't know if they hunt at night or not? But all the attacks have happened in the afternoon/beginning of the evening. And we really can't build a full sized hutch for them to stay in during the day, plus that might be too cramped.

 

[WVduckchick]

I came home from work one day, went out to the yard and found one of my drakes dead. Head laying beside the body, neck only eaten. Checked my security camera footage and saw the hawk swoop down on him while he was just waddling along. He didn’t know what hit him
My video didn’t have the sound on, so I couldn’t tell if the chickens were alarming or not. But I think I interrupted the hawks dinner when I came home because I appear on the video like 2 minutes after he leaves, which is about the time it takes me to enter the house and go back out when I get home.

 

[harmonymw]

Feeding the wild birds works well. They’ll nest nearby and drive off hawks pretty effectively, but only for the spring and early summer usually. Dogs and kids are the best deterrent I have.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Humans aren't always a deterrent. There is a byc rmemeber here who has a video of a hawk chasing his chickens while his back was turned cleaning the coop. Then, he realized something was up turned in just enough time to swat the hawk.
Awhile back, I was out cleaning near the chicken coop and had the chickens out in their run - it was totally open. I was out less than 20 min and a hawk was circling above me and the chickens.
Hawks arent afraid of people.
I now have good quality aviary netting over the run and it has been a good deterrent for hawks.
My dogs are spoiled house dogs. They couldn't even stand the heat yesterday and wanted back into the house after 5 min.
@Skye'sDucks that is a lot of ducklings! Very cute too. Did one hen lay all 25 eggs?

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

it seams the hawk leaves the full grown ones alone? Mabye you need a roofed run just untill their full sized. Hawkes are very smart and wont leave now that they know theres adorable little snacks.

By the way they are sooooo cute!!

If the hawk gets a hold of the adult muscovy from behind it can take it down. I have read many stories of adult muscovies being killed by hawks here on byc.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

Circling only means they’re staying away though. Raptors circled my property before we ever had chickens or ducks, so maybe circling just doesn’t bother me much.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Thank you.

We may try to start transitioning my drake out there with them, since its probably about time anyways. He's fine with the babies, just like I said, its my hen I'm worried about. I don't think he could hurt her, but I don't know.

We'd also probably take the eggs once she has more, as well. I'm a little nervous eating them for the first time (if it happens in the future, which it most likely will! ha) but I know there's a time frame that we can collect the eggs.

We have built some shelters (as you can see they were actually sitting under them this afternoon) I'm thinking the hawk caught them when they were down by the creek (there's steep banks on either side) or while they were sleeping on an open area on top of the bank.



Thank you for the reply.

Yeah, I understand that...Sigh...There's only so much we can do to take care of the problem, especially since we don't have dogs.

We have built them a shelter and there's also long grass and bushes they can hide in, but I'm wondering if the hawk just caught them off guard. There was a puff of feathers and sadly some of the duckling across the bank of the creek on Sunday, so the hawk could have caught them off guard while sleeping. (It's one of their favorite places to sit around. Freaked me out when I saw them go back to the exact same spot again after we checked on them! Silly ducks)
The second time, today, there's no duckling in sight so it must have been carried off entirely.

So long story short yes, they have coverage, and really its not much better in our smaller yard. If we see the hawk again or lose another duckling I might have to see about moving them around, since I know we have more bushes in our yard...

I don't know if my hen and the ducklings are smart enough to run when the birds start squawking and freaking out in the surrounding trees, but they do go off when a hawk is nearby, but that's really the only alarm they have short of them noticing the hawk.



Ah thank you! They really do have some beautiful coloring.

Well, I only have one full grown duck out there with them, the mother. (My drake is separated, but he's WAY too big for a hawk) The rest are still barely six weeks old, although some are bigger than the others. I haven't really been able to tell which sized ducks the hawk is taking.

And I realized the hawk might start coming back when it finds out they are a food source. I don't know if they hunt at night or not? But all the attacks have happened in the afternoon/beginning of the evening. And we really can't build a full sized hutch for them to stay in during the day, plus that might be too cramped.

Your hen is definitely smart enough to run from danger. Muscovy are pretty smart. I don't want to be a downer, but a hawk can definitely take down a fully grown drake - if it does so from the right direction. The muscovy will give it a fight for sure, but if a hawk comes from behind with no warning and gets a hold of any duck - it will grab a hold with its talons and squeeze. Then it is pretty much over from there. I read a post where a hawk got a hold of a muscovy drake, the drake struggled and even ended up under a vehicle. I think it might have gotten away, but the the wounds and the squeezing was too much and it died anyway.
I think the reality is when domestic birds are free ranged, there is going to be a loss now and then.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

The key to remember is that if your fence is high enough a raptor is physically incapable of carrying any duck, chicken, or goose above the baby stage off. They would have to eat in on site because a 2.5 lb red tail isn’t capable of carrying off a fully grown chicken or duck. Even a bald eagle couldn’t carry off a fully grown duck. They absolutely have to eat on site or rip off only a portion to eat. Wild animals unafraid of humans are the exception, not the rule. I’d even go so far to say that they likely are ill.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Circling only means they’re staying away though. Raptors circled my property before we ever had chickens or ducks, so maybe circling just doesn’t bother me much.

Well, I hurried and put my chickens away that day. It means they are observing to see what the situation is.
I think the guy who swatted the hawk is Greg, but not sure of the full user name.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Feeding the wild birds works well. They’ll nest nearby and drive off hawks pretty effectively, but only for the spring and early summer usually. Dogs and kids are the best deterrent I have.

Not all wild birds drive off hawks. Hawks kill wild birds all of the time. There are byc members that advocate not attracting wild birds for many reasons - one is to not attract hawks.