Legal Elimination of Hawks and Owls

[JacinLarkwell]

Odd this thread fired back up after so long. Where I live, raptor losses are considered an acceptable loss. Sad, but it is what it is. So are any daytime predators or a bobcat. We have multiple birds that free range all day even when we are not home, and about half are put up in a safe coop at night. We have a flock that lives in the barn that is never confined and of those we have lost 2 in almost 5 years. One to a dog and one to a feral cat that was later removed.

We have lost maybe 2 or 3 birds over a decade to hawks. Can't kill them and usually when we realized what happened, its too late.

 

[centrarchid]

The concerns are often over rated. I have had hawk issues, they are not an every day event and can go for long periods of time between events.

Last round was almost 4 years ago in link below.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/coopers-hawk-working-barn-area-hard.1139715/page-8

I have chickens a bit smaller than average running about even now. The hawks are not that big of an issue. I have yet to kill a hawk for killing chickens, or even fired a weapon in its general direction. I will deploy roosters and dogs that might kill one, but that has yet to harm any hawks to my knowledge. The laws protecting hawks are sound. Too many keep chickens for it to become legal to kill hawk for purpose of protecting chickens. Hawks would be in real trouble quick if laws relaxed. If you are not smart enough to protect the chickens legally, the get out of chickens.