Hawks are getting to be the worst of the predators that I have had to deal with in the last 6 months. I free range 200 +/- layers and have been losing 2-5 per week. WAY TOO MANY. The other morning, I had let out one "trailer" and after filling the waterer, saw the hens running in a dodging pattern and there was a hawk swooping after them. Never saw a bird fly as fast or in such a twisting/turning manner. All the birds have gotten better at watching..... then I went to the second trailer and let them out and the hawk nearly flew into me going after the chickens. Again, nothing..... but they are getting more brazen. I couldn't shoot it, even if it was legal to do so, because of the erratic flight to attack. The only other thing would be to use a heavy poultry netting and try to get it tangled up in the netting as it tries to get at the hens; (a friend said that they used to catch a half dozen hawks every year tangled in netting when they swooped down after their chickens in their 'runs'.) And it will disappear from there. Period. If one gets into your coop, try to get it in some sort of LARGE net/netting and call the game warden. They have to remove it from the area, and you have not "destroyed" it. Personally, SSS or the equivalent is the best way. I have 10-15 roosters running with the hens, and have lost 4 LARGE barred rock males and one Speckled Sussex to the hawk. These are big healthy young roosters, 7-8 months old and weigh in the 6-9 lb. range. I often will take free give away roosters advertised in the paper just to use as decoys.....they keep the hens happy and if the hens are not "squatting", looking for a rooster, they are not as big a target. I must've lost 10-15 in less than 2 weeks because they would squat for anything that came along, before I started keeping extra males. But it is still disheartening....
Our old donkey doesn't bother the hawks, but the llama does keep an eye out for 4 legged predators. The dogs and coyotes are not so big a problem now, but the foxes don't raise the attack response in the llama. Everyone gets locked in at night, so have stopped any opposum and raccoon problems, but have seen foxes in the middle of the day; and they are not sickly or rabid. One day I went up to check on the hens and there was a big grey fox that had killed and left 2 hens and was after another. He nearly did a somersalt when he realized that I was chasing him , and took off like a scalded cat. Several farmer friends told me that it was a male as they will more often kill for fun, whereas the females will grab and go.... I didn't have the gun with me that day. Now I never go anywhere without it. I have gotten 1 grey and 2 red foxes this year, caught another young one where I was farm sitting in a live trap with some eggs as bait. Broke one and put a couple whole ones in there. But he was a juvenile and hadn't gotten any experience prior to that.....didn't get anymore after that either.
Have had the hawks attack ducks before, but the turkeys are too big I guess. At least after they are pretty well grown. Any 1/2 grown poultry is fair game for any predator.... Never had any chickens attack a hawk though.....
The hens run on pasture and there are 5-25 head of cattle there so the hawks are not detered by the cows. Since the llama will not tolerate any dogs that's out. If you have a dog and it is not a chicken killer, it might be a deterrent to the hawks in some cases....There really isn't any one good solution. And as another reader said, once you get it figured out,....along comes a new twist to it.