I lost 4 chickens to a Red Tailed Hawk yesterday

[Uppity Peon]

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I think it could be a pair of hawks feeding a nest full of babies.

Try mylar balloons, foil pie pans, shiny CDs, anything to reflect light around. I hear this confuses and repels raptors.

 

[chseeads]

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Hey, if it works, it's better to look like one, than to be one.

 

[cgmccary]

Uppity PeonI think it could be a pair of hawks feeding a nest full of babies.

Possible, maybe not a "nest" but young. I notice that Davidkjh lists his location as Mebane. The only Mebane I know is in North Carolina. If N.C., it seems such a nest probably should have fledged the young Red Tails (1-5 eggs, 30 or so days incubation and about 42 days in the nest then fledging) -- it could be that, a group of Red Tails, still together just after fledging, hunting or parents still feeding, but I have not witnessed that happening. I have witnessed a male/ female pair of Cooper's hunting but I saw them take a pigeon (Rock Dove).

I just wondered: Were hawk(s) seen taking the chickens? OR Did chickens just disappear and hawk(s) were assumed? for what reason? OR Did chickens disappear and thereafter or about the same time, in the vicinity, hawk(s) were seen, therefore hawk(s) were assumed? The information in the post is not enough to reach any conclusions unless one takes it literally, "It" infers one hawk and Hawk is in the topic heading.​

 

[silentrunning]

The only thing that has worked as a hawk deterant for me is my Labrador Retrievers. My 3 year old male actually got one from behind while it was preoccupied with a black snake. The hawk got away but I praised the dog so he would know that he did good. There is almost never a time that you can't see a hawk on our property.

Doug

 

[troy5775]

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I have seen one hawk kill several young chickens at one sitting. A friend of mine had several young chickens in a large cage made of welded wire and put in the grass for them to graze, thinking they were protected. He came outside to a hawk sitting on the cage and reaching in and pulling the heads of the chickens (aboout 10 weeks old I think) I think he killed 7 or 8.