RIP little chicks!

[BucksNducks]

Lost two of my smallest chicks today including my very favorite little Dutch bantam, which had previously gotten quite lucky. I am sick about it! I caught a glimpse of it leaving and under the tree it was perched in, bloody feathers, bird feces (presumably from the hawk) and some intestine. My dogs were inside when it happened or they wouldn't have allowed it to come near. I have been researching on here how to keep them away but I worry that in the interim it will be back. Now that it knows where they are, should I keep them and the ducklings in their coop unless I am watching until some time passes and/or modifications can be made?

 

[PD-Riverman]

Lost two of my smallest chicks today including my very favorite little Dutch bantam, which had previously gotten quite lucky. I am sick about it! I caught a glimpse of it leaving and under the tree it was perched in, bloody feathers, bird feces (presumably from the hawk) and some intestine. My dogs were inside when it happened or they wouldn't have allowed it to come near. I have been researching on here how to keep them away but I worry that in the interim it will be back. Now that it knows where they are, should I keep them and the ducklings in their coop unless I am watching until some time passes and/or modifications can be made?

Sorry about your loss.

If you been researching on how to keep a hawk away----Good Luck. I tell you how I stopped hawk problems for years----covered runs and No Free-ranging. If I let them out---I had hawk problems---might not be the first day but soon. Now that GP watches for them and so far I have not had a problem in close 2 years of free-ranging about 1/2 the day.

 

[BucksNducks]

Thanks, PD-Riverman. We live on a very quiet dead end road but do not have a full fence or I'd leave my dogs out in the daytime. It might be worth investing in a gate and fence repair as I have been wanting to do it anyway. I had put a 4' tall metal skeleton with large painted eyes in the pen, hoping that it might freak out predators and keep them away. Clearly that didn't go so well.... back to the drawing board.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Thanks, PD-Riverman. We live on a very quiet dead end road but do not have a full fence or I'd leave my dogs out in the daytime. It might be worth investing in a gate and fence repair as I have been wanting to do it anyway. I had put a 4' tall metal skeleton with large painted eyes in the pen, hoping that it might freak out predators and keep them away. Clearly that didn't go so well.... back to the drawing board.

Yes, if your dogs watch out for the hawks/chickens---fix the gates/fences!! My GP will bark and chase a hawk---any big bird until it gets past her fenced in area.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have had large hawks dive for a bird with my giant dogs and myself right there in the yard.
My birds still get to come out BUT only after I have scanned all the sky I can see and the trees. Then only if I am able to stay out with them. A wire lid on a run keeps mine safe the rest of the time.
Literally I have had to step between a diving hawk and a hen right next to me.

I am very sorry you are learning this the hard way.

 

[Red5]

It isn't right these beasts are as protected as they are. There should be a bounty on the things, least here anyways as there is one on every other electric pole. It is almost a guarantee that at any given moment at least one hawk is working my pastures and visible from the yard. Had a brown eagle perched atop my quail coop watching them in their run. Fortunately it left and never returned.

 

[BucksNducks]

PD-Riverman, I think we will make that the next big project. Neither my German Shepherd or my collie mix are prone to wandering, but it makes me nervous that they could get on the road if they wanted to. This combined with today's events settles that for me. They hate hawks, buzzards, and really big crows but leave chickens, ducks, and songbirds alone. Funny how they know, isn't it?

21hens, that is crazy! I know they're fast but didn't realize how bold they could be. I'm really hoping my dogs will help keep them at bay... I will be extra vigilant. I might need to do as you did and build a covered enclosure. Their pen is an old goat pen, about 30X30, that we affixed chicken wire to (it was just barbed wire and hog panel) and on the coop (about 5' high, 10 feet across and 6 feet deep) we did a half wall on the front, with chicken wire on the top half. The other three walls and roof are tin. I thought they would be safe because they'd be able to run into the coop if something was after them and there is tree cover. My neighbors have free range everything and they never seem to lose a guinea or a chicken. There is probably a lot I don't know about that, though. Thank you for the sympathy. I just feel so foolish.

Red5, totally agreed. Without getting off on a rant, I think it's sort of funny that they're being killed in droves here in TX by the tines on these wind energy mills (so much they're hiring personnel to research it) but shooting one is forbidden. I am emotionally attached to my chickens and see them as pets. If a human came onto my property and started ripping my pets apart, I'd probably have more legal room to defend my property and pets against him than a hawk. It's really silly.

 

[JaeG]

I'm really sorry for your loss. Unfortunately if you choose to free range, at some point your luck will run out and you will lose a bird. If you want your chickens to be 100% safe then you do have to confine them to a predator proof run. Our girls are pets so they live in large, solid roofed runs. Too many roaming dogs live round here for me to feel safe about letting them out.

Please think of the rodent population explosion that would occur if hawks suddenly disappeared. I live in New Zealand where certain rodents have been introduced due to colonisation, but those rodents have very few predators here. We have some hawks but they aren't all that common, we have a tiny native owl (again, very rare) who may eat mice, but prefers insects, and we have pet cats (and feral ones). And our native birds, who lived almost predator free before people arrived here, have suffered greatly, and most are critically endangered and have to live on off shore islands where pests have been eradicated. But the rabbits, the hedgehogs, the rats and mice, the brush tailed possums, the stoats (introduced to eat the rabbits - ha ha!), their populations are out of control because there are no predators to keep them in check, and have to be managed by our Department of Conservation by the use of poisons and traps. And they are fighting a losing battle. It's horrible.

As for us, we have huge Norwegian rats where we are, and nothing to eat them. Seriously - these things are huge! We've poisoned some and trapped some. I'd love some hawks to move in and hunt those suckers! And the mice! Despite me having quarter inch hardware cloth on my aviary I've recently had baby finches eaten by mice (one disappeared and the dead one had no feet), and the remaining babies, which I have managed to save (ie raise from a day old) have had their toes nipped off to varying degrees. I know if I'd left them there the mice would've been back to finish the job. They are now 18 days old.

Here's Stumpy, so called because s/he only has one full toe (on the foot you can't see) - the others all have some missing. I don't even know if s/he'll be able to perch, but we shall see. S/he was so pale from blood loss when I brought them inside I did not think the poor little thing would make it. It was so awful - I initially suspected the parents until I did some research. I thought mice just ate grains and left the carnivorous stuff to their bigger cousins, the rats. How innocent I was!

Hopefully that cute (but ugly) face makes you smile a little.

 

[BucksNducks]

JaeG, thank you for the condolences. I know most people I interact with day to day would think I am being ridiculous for mourning chickens- but they are sweet and silly and so innocent. I'm really glad to be a part of a forum who understands.

I certainly don't blame the hawk, especially now that I've cooled off some, I know everything is just trying to eat and survive. But they are not even remotely threatened here, and I don't think killing some would overall be a bad thing. That being said, I appreciate their role in nature and you're quite right- they are excellent for rodent control. I do have to admire them from an evolutionary standpoint- they are masters of what they do. I just wish they would do what they do to a critter that wasn't my pet

This weekend we are making a covered run off of the coop. It will be about waist high for ten feet or so until it clears the trees, where it will open up to standing height and much wider so they can perch and get some sunshine and forage in safety. They will only be allowed out of it when we are there to supervise. Then we are going to fix the fence and add a gate so the dogs can stay out with them more. Hopefully the combination of big dogs and a covered run will keep them safe.

I have no idea that mice could or would prey on birds?! Seems they're delicious to everything

I think Stumpy is absolutely adorable- what a cutie (and very lucky to have such a devoted keeper!) Animals are so resilient, and being so young, who knows? Maybe S/he will adapt and find a way to move around pretty well. I will be thinking of you and Stumpy and thinking good thoughts for him/her!