Red-shouldered hawks are generally not a threat to chickens. They are the one species that can almost always come in close to chickens without causing issues. Relationship between chickens and Red-shouldered may be similar to arrangement involving crows and Red-shouldered.
We have red tailed and red shouldered, plus others. We encourage the red shouldered and crows to be on our property, as they will territorially defend against other raptors and minimally bother the poultry. However, it’s not a perfect system as we still lost a duck to a visiting red tailed hawk. When the hawk came back the next day for a repeat, the crows chased it off. We’ve seen a few red tails since then but they don’t stay long due to crows. After penning up ducks for two weeks, we now have brief outdoor time when we are home.
If you are in the SF bay area you definitely have redtail hawks. It will get worse in August-October, when lots of hawks migrate through the area.
Good to know! Feeling happy that our current hawk situation is a mating pair of red shoulders. Hopefully that will help keep us a little bit protected. Will have to be sure I get more protections in place for them before the migration though~!
