Red tail hawk stalking!

[kelly52862]

I had a red tailed hawk kill my Sussex rooster yesterday. He was a good sized rooster, but was unable to eat his kill because of my dogs.

 

[shannon84]

We also have some hawk issues - How does your rooster react to the hawk? My principle flock rooster sees them before I do. He gets the girls to run for cover, and if he sees one coming near a hen, he runs or flies at it with quite a bit of aggression. Since we have had him, we have not had a single successful hawk attack. That said, what everyone on this thread has mentioned is true - if the hawk is really desperate for a meal, they will go to greater lengths to get prey.
I have a pit bull/kelpie cross who has learned to be a decent guardian too. It's definitely not bred into him, but I worked and worked...and worked with him to get him to that point. Here he is with a few of the girls:

you're lucky to have a dog like him that's not aggressive towards chickens. I haven't really had a chance to see my rooster react to a hawlk yet. But I always see his eye scanning the sky and he takes the girls under the trees or the deck. I'm not sure if he would be the type to fight or not. He gets crazy when my husband is around the girls. He seems like the type to be very protective. Hopefully anyways. Your rooster sounds pretty amazing. I like that lol