I turned my back for a minute and WHOA!

[cmom]

I see we have some fairly new members,
One day I was free ranging the birds and was out in our blueberries which is next to the coops. One of the birds followed me into the blueberries. The next thing I remember was a hawk had swooped down and did kill my bird. She was only about 10 feet away from me. The hawk didn't carry her off but I was yelling and screaming and the hawk took off. It happened so fast. I didn't see the hawk and apparently the other birds didn't either because no one made a sound. Another time my husband was cutting some wood on his table saw that was next to a small temporary pen I would put the chicks in. This also happened so fast there wasn't any time to react, a hawk came down and grabbed one of the chicks. Now if I use the temporary pen I make sure I cover it. All of my pens have netting over them to protect the birds from aerial predators.

 

[Bookmole353]

So far I haven’t had a “bird of prey” attack. But I have counted up to 8 hawks circling my pen. I have a Brahma rooster and a rir rooster that wanna the hens and they scatter when he warns them. I have also put up some cd’s on a string to kinda scare off the hawks, so far so good.

 

[cmom]

First I tried the CD's on fishing line over my pens. At the time it was an owl that had killed some of my birds. I have 2 coops that are open on one side. The owls just flew right in. After I discovered what was killing my birds I put netting up covering all of the pens. This picture was before I put the fishing line up.

 

[mamablair]

Glad you were right there! I only let mine free range when I'm out with them.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I see we have some fairly new members,
One day I was free ranging the birds and was out in our blueberries which is next to the coops. One of the birds followed me into the blueberries. The next thing I remember was a hawk had swooped down and did kill my bird. She was only about 10 feet away from me. The hawk didn't carry her off but I was yelling and screaming and the hawk took off. It happened so fast. I didn't see the hawk and apparently the other birds didn't either because no one made a sound. Another time my husband was cutting some wood on his table saw that was next to a small temporary pen I would put the chicks in. This also happened so fast there wasn't any time to react, a hawk came down and grabbed one of the chicks. Now if I use the temporary pen I make sure I cover it. All of my pens have netting over them to protect the birds from aerial predators.

Yup. We had hawks swoop down and pick off chicks right in front of us when my sister and I were little. Couldn’t blame them - they were only trying to feed their babies - but it was still traumatizing. Now I’m always telling people to be careful with letting their small pets run loose in the yard (pet rats, bearded dragons, guinea pigs, and people who walk around with their brightly colored parrots on their shoulders). My first thought is alway ‘Aren’t you worried about hawks getting them?!’.

 

[slordaz]

Whew! Close call...glad you were right there to save the poor baby! I've read a couple posts on here that claim crows to be a good hawk deterrent...any way you could make your area more crow friendly?

you don't want a bunch of crows either really, they will steal your eggs and have occasionally gone after chicks in a big group, which is unusual for them on going after your birds as they are mostly scavengers. They are literal myna birds too so it's most likely the hawks aren't scared of them as much as they can sound like a chicken if they want or they can sound like an Eagle out hunting which would kill a hawk

 

[cmom]

We have crows and if they see a hawk they go after it and chase it off. They don't steal any eggs or chicks here because they can't get to them.

 

[slordaz]

We have crows and if they see a hawk they go after it and chase it off. They don't steal any eggs or chicks here because they can't get to them.

yeah we didn't make that mistake, broody was going stir crazy and wanted out to free range we had to make some changes and started making all of them stay in until they had laid the young ones just tarting to lay didn't get it and would lay close to the coop but not in it if they were to busy. also had to change the wiring on top as 6 crows worked together to get it off one morning

 

[Mimi13]

Post-dawn and pre-dusk are big hawk sighting times around where I live and I have also had one pre-roosting time hawk attack on my fluffy butted Cochin. Luckily the attack was a fail, but it was an eye opener for me even though I still free range my chickens.

We have a large hawk population due to the large numbers of farming fields that are home to rats. Crows around here are a hawk’s foe and I’ve never had any come after chicks or eggs.

On the days of heavy hawk sightings, I shoot bottle rockets into the air. So far that has worked to help keep them away.

 

[MidGaMarine]

And this is why my Littles aren’t allowed to free range (that and my idiot dogs would get them ). While growing up, all our chickens ran loose in a large fenced area without a cover over the top. We didn’t even have a coop for some of that time. They’d roost in the trees and roam all day outside. We never had hawks go after full-grown chickens, but there was always the chance of chicks being taken. Once, a hawk swooped down and took off with a large duckling. She was too heavy to carry, so he dropped her and she died. It was awful . Now that I’m an adult, I am super paranoid so we have a large coop and nice big run for them . I might let them out later for a while (when they are full-grown and I’m there to monitor the dogs), but we shall see ...

It's the same situation here. I'm living in the house that I grew up in where we had all of our animals chickens, pigs, ducks, turkeys pigeons and rabbits etc.
Then , it was very rare for a hawk or any predator to come and take up our chickens and as you said I neighbors and all of our chickens roamed free roosting in the trees. Now it's like a free-for-all chicken buffet here.
Go get a squirrel!