Reallly need help with predator prevention.

[Curtiejlee]

So today I had my hand reared pigeon on my shoulder and I was walking toward my loft for something. Suddenly a hawk flew down and tried to grab him off of me. He chased him around and almost got him. Anyways, I've lost well over 30 birds to hawks and owls and im sick of it. Ive lost seven since last week, all of which this years new squeakers. I have an owl stature I frequently move and I change up my free flight schedule frequently. Some time ago, I caught an owl eating one of my white kings inside my pigeon aviary (accidentally left the loft trap door open). Any ideas? I find it troubling that they attack them even when im around. Ive been smacked in the face by hawk wings twice and I really dont want a third time.

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

try to threaten them without hurting them.

 

[Curtiejlee]

Alot of my pigeons have patches or feathers missing due to hawk attacks.

 

[Curtiejlee]

We occasionally shoot guns to scare them, but they just come back. I've tried threatening. I throw rocks and yell at them whenever they show up.

 

[RossH]

The hawks will be there as long as you keep showing them your birds & they get to eat them . Lockdown in stout pen with good wire sounds like the only thing to do in your case .

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

you could also try buying netting that you can put over a large area

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have a family of crows in my neighbourhood that keeps the hawks at bay. In a perfect world my homers can out fly the hawks around here. I still loose the occasional young squaker and the odd one to ambush. Crows are my secret weapon.

 

[Curtiejlee]

Well, netting probably wouldnt be the best plan because it would need to cover a very large area. My pigeons are currently on lockdown. I generally keep them on lockdown for a week or two, then let them free fly for a week, or until I have hawk problems. We feed the magpies and ravens taxidermy scraps, but they only stay around for feeding time and are gone by the time the hawks are hunting. I usually lose fancy and young birds, probably due to slow flight. I have an italian owl and a few of his offspring who can evade hawks though!

 

[jak2002003]

All good advise so far. I would like to add an idea.

At the moment the hawks and owls are using your pigeons as an easy, regular meal. You need to break their cycle of them thinking they can rely on this easy free food!

Lock you pigeons up in your coop for a few weeks out of sight of the predators. After a few days the predators are going be hungry and their birdy brains will tell them to go look for food elsewhere. They will think they have used up all your pigeons.

After a few weeks you should see less and less of them about.

Use this time to get your pigeons breeding to replace your lost birds.

Then you can start to have STRUCTURED free flight for you pigeons.

Only let them out once a day to start with... for about 30 mins. Then call them back into the loft to feed them. Make sure you train them well to return on your command.

If there are no attacks.. then you can let them out for about an hour 2 X a day.... then again make sure they all return on call.

Its important to vary the times you let them out... . so any predators can not learn to be around at a certain time for some fast food!

If you feel bad about you birds being in the loft a lot.... you simply can build a large flight aviary... but make sure the roof and at least one side are solid to keep them hidden from the hawks... and also stop owls etc landing on a wire roof and frightening the pigeons.

Good luck!

Hopefully with no regular food on offer and no pigeons lazing about for hours outside the loft.. the predators will move on and attacks will be much reduced.

 

[Curtiejlee]

So far ive been doing most of that. Theyre call trained, just not the young birds. The hawks and owls are year round residents. Theres multiple hawk nests near our house. I think my birds are turning into baby food. I break the cycle of times they free fly. The hawks just dont care im there. One day I opened up my loft and right after, a hawk stooped down and grabbed my utility red right in front of me. Luckily, our rooster ran over and kicked it off of him! That was after keeping them locked up for a month.