North Carolina

[Matt A NC]

With a larger bird a hawk will hit it, pierce the skull, and then eat the head first quickly. Then if it can it will either continue eating if safe or try to carry the prey off. If the hawk spooked it probably tried to carry the bird off and dropped it where you found it.

Matt

 

[Flyredbird]

I am new here, also from NC, around Fort Bragg! I too have had a problem with predators, from dogs to hawks, and it's very discouraging I lost my favorite animal, my dark blue wyandotte Javert, to a dog (tamest bird I've ever had, she would come up to me and step into my hands when I bent down to pick her up so we could cuddle, and if I sat down she would trot over and climb into my lap).

In other news, if anyone is looking for a very regal and dumb Easter Egger rooster, I've got one that I'm willing to drive and hour or two to rehome (and I'm willing to meet people halfway, too), so if anyone here wants a look at him, ask (or go through my profile, I think). I trust the people of BYC more than Craigslist, and I don't want him turning into soup D:

 

[dutchbunny83]

With a larger bird a hawk will hit it, pierce the skull, and then eat the head first quickly. Then if it can it will either continue eating if safe or try to carry the prey off. If the hawk spooked it probably tried to carry the bird off and dropped it where you found it.

Matt

Yeah that sounds about right. The Marans wasn't very big, but still the head was clean gone and I don't know that another animal could do it that quickly and quietly.

I have a neighbor 2 doors down that has chickens that free range all day long and she has NEVER had a hawk!

I have a fake hawk & owl, I have reflective cd's, I have all my runs completely covered in bird netting and usually only let them out briefly when I'm out with them. Any other suggestions on how I can keep these stupid birds away???

Also, we have guinea pigs that pretty much run around our yard during the day, why does this hawk (or snake or whatever it was in my coop at night) never mess with them?

 

[DSTchickencraze]

So sorry to hear about your maran!

As for winter layers, Brahmas and Delawares are both supposed to be good winter layers - but I have yet to obtain personal experience with this. I'll let you know in the spring. Check out this breed comparison chart from ALBC: http://www.livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/chicken-chart

Thanks so much! Yeah we loved our little Dark Brahma before she passed, but she ended up breaking her wing and passing away... She was the best little hen at bug eating. She would run half way across the property just to eat a specific bug. I really want more Dark Brahmas. My mom also wants some more considering she was hers... Thanks for the link and suggestions.

. "Just" mycoplasmosis? MG IS mycoplasmosis! That's a pretty detrimental disease and not to be taken lightly. You may want to hold off bringing more birds in until you sort out what is going on.

Oh I feel stupid now... That's not what I meant to say.... I've read through so many different things and have gone through so many chicken disease books and talked to so many people about different stuff. What I meant to say is I don't think it is really serious (from what I can tell/the current symptoms) from what I see. I am definitely not 100% sure; I'm hardly 40% sure that it is something minor and that they just got something in their eye.... I'm waiting to see if more symptoms pop-up.
Oh stupid me!

I didn't mean to put mycoplasmosis.... It's been an extremely long past few days.... Thanks for catching that I hope no one thinks I'm happy that my birds might "just" have some sort of life threatening thing! My words just didn't come out right...
And I am most definetely planning on not bringing in any new birds until we figure whole eye thing out... I am just trying to plan everything out for when we do try and get more girls.

 

[Banriona]

Thanks so much! Yeah we loved our little Dark Brahma before she passed, but she ended up breaking her wing and passing away... She was the best little hen at bug eating. She would run half way across the property just to eat a specific bug. I really want more Dark Brahmas. My mom also wants some more considering she was hers... Thanks for the link and suggestions.

No problem. Hope it helps! Never hurts to research ahead of time. Planning is the crucial phase of any project. I LOVE my brahmas! Definately wanting more in spring. Thinking I'll get 5ea of Darks and Buffs, along with a couple Polish (a white crested black and a golden). My brahma roo is the only one that still hops up on my lap for a cuddle (or he's trying to "own" me like my dogs do). Bugs are great. The other day they found a frog and started up a rugby match over it. Felt bad for the frog, but it was funny to watch them run around and fight over it. Wish I'd had my camera with me.

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

Good morning

We have had chickens for many years and had very
few predator problems in comparison. Most of our
problems has been snakes taking some of the smaller
.birds, we don't worry about them taking eggs so much.
We have had some hawk and owl attacks but those were
mostly on the pigeons and then there was the one ornery
possum that killed my geese because they would sleep near
it's den so we encouraged it to move away but mostly we do
our best to live along with nature and pen the birds in safe pens.
Sorry for all the losses folks have had.

hope everyone has a good day

 

[dutchbunny83]

I am new here, also from NC, around Fort Bragg! I too have had a problem with predators, from dogs to hawks, and it's very discouraging I lost my favorite animal, my dark blue wyandotte Javert, to a dog (tamest bird I've ever had, she would come up to me and step into my hands when I bent down to pick her up so we could cuddle, and if I sat down she would trot over and climb into my lap).

In other news, if anyone is looking for a very regal and dumb Easter Egger rooster, I've got one that I'm willing to drive and hour or two to rehome (and I'm willing to meet people halfway, too), so if anyone here wants a look at him, ask (or go through my profile, I think). I trust the people of BYC more than Craigslist, and I don't want him turning into soup D:

Hi! I'm in Fayetteville around Ft Bragg too (assuming your husband is stationed there too?) How long have you been here?
We just started with chickens about a year ago, back home you're not allowed to have them unless you live on more than an acre and need a permit for each bird! It's been a lot of fun though, despite the losses. Sorry about your Wyandotte. We've been able to keep the neighbors dogs out fortunately, but not so much luck with hawks and snakes.
Anyway...

 

[tammyfarms]

Good Morning everyone!

Dutch, sorry about your marans.
DST, hope you get the bubbly eye thing figured out.

My chickens were squacking like mad on Sunday. When I went out to the coop a hawk took flight and swooped away. It must have been perched on the fence, a low roof that makes a little outdoor patio, or the aviary netting. Poor kiddos were all huddling inside the coop. Thankfully there were no casualties. All of my pens are covered, but I do like to let them out every evening to free range. No problems last night. I am thinking the hawk decided the effort was to great and went to look for easier prey.

hope everyone has a great day!

 

[JollieChick]

Hi all. So interesting to hear about the hawks. We had one last week circling our backyard. All our girls (we have 9 hens) ran under the deck and hid. We had another unfortunate thing on Sunday. We were giving our dogs a bath on Sun (one at a time, we have 3) and my husband had the first one tied up and while I went back in the house to vacuum, my husband came in for a couple minutes looking for another leash and low and behold our dog had chewed threw the leash and went after my girls. She got a hold of one our younger girls (3 months old), the barred Rock. Unfortunately she killed her. Man we were mad at her. We have been so careful only letting the girls free range when the dogs were out in the back or tied up. I have even taken that dog on a leash down to the coop and she stood beside me while the hens came out to free range. Never did she show aggression or try to pull the leash. I was really happy that she was showing not aggression and seemed to accept that the hens are part of our family now. I guess she is the silent stalker type. So needless to say we are down to 8.

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

. "Just" mycoplasmosis? MG IS mycoplasmosis! That's a pretty detrimental disease and not to be taken lightly. You may want to hold off bringing more birds in until you sort out what is going on.

Oh I feel stupid now... That's not what I meant to say.... I've read through so many different things and have gone through so many chicken disease books and talked to so many people about different stuff. What I meant to say is I don't think it is really serious (from what I can tell/the current symptoms) from what I see. I am definitely not 100% sure; I'm hardly 40% sure that it is something minor and that they just got something in their eye.... I'm waiting to see if more symptoms pop-up. 
Oh stupid me!   I didn't mean to put mycoplasmosis.... It's been an extremely long past few days.... Thanks for catching that I hope no one thinks I'm happy that my birds might "just" have some sort of life threatening thing! My words just didn't come out right... 
And I am most definetely planning on not bringing in any new birds until we figure whole eye thing out... I am just trying to plan everything out for when we do try and get more girls. 

I'm so glad that was just a slip of the tongue...I mean, fingers!

For those are are having predator losses, particulalry your own dog, my sympathies. I have a chicken/turkey killing puppy, who has taught two of my older dogs to join in. They are why the turkeys are gone. Almost. One more to go. The chickens mostly stay in their pastures, but the turkeys roam out into the yard. Where the dogs get them! Arrgggghhhhh!