Second Hawk Attack in Two Weeks?

[orrpeople]

I'm with the "may not be a hawk" folks. Hawks are our #1 nemesis here. They always kill on the ground and eat them there. Sometimes they chase them under a bush, or pin them by a fence, but I have never had them carry them off. The last one they killed was only a 5 week old cockerel, so it was perfectly small enough to carry. I think you may have a fox or other land predator who prefer the snatch and grab. And foxes are not entirely nocturnal (neither are coyotes who are obnoxious and will stare me down when I encounter them while I'm out running... nature. Gotta love it.)

 

[Farmgal101]

Im sorry you lost your chickens i recommend you fence your chickens with a net over it with alot of space to walk around but still be safe. or a net over your whole property.

 

[orrpeople]

Im sorry you lost your chickens i recommend you fence your chickens with a net over it with alot of space to walk around but still be safe. or a net over your whole property.

Although that's a nice idea, for most of us it isn't practical to net over acres and acres of property where out chickens happily roam There's definitely a trade off when you make the choice to free range, but every day I watch my flock and they are truly happy out roaming. We do lose a few, but even chickens in coops can be victims of preditation. I think we all make the choice that works best for us, and live with the plusses and minuses. I wrote a little article while back about this whole thing, because sometimes I have to remind myself about the whole "loss" part of chicken ownership.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-with-loss-from-a-tenderhearted-farmer.72519/

 

[Farmgal101]

Although that's a nice idea, for most of us it isn't practical to net over acres and acres of property where out chickens happily roam There's definitely a trade off when you make the choice to free range, but every day I watch my flock and they are truly happy out roaming. We do lose a few, but even chickens in coops can be victims of preditation. I think we all make the choice that works best for us, and live with the plusses and minuses. I wrote a little article while back about this whole thing, because sometimes I have to remind myself about the whole "loss" part of chicken ownership.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-with-loss-from-a-tenderhearted-farmer.72519/

you could fence in 5 acres and put a net or as many acres your chickans need to be happy.

 

[featherz]

A hawk kill looks like someone exploded a pillow... that sounds like a ground predator, as others have said..

 

[BenAnnaMama]

Although that's a nice idea, for most of us it isn't practical to net over acres and acres of property where out chickens happily roam There's definitely a trade off when you make the choice to free range, but every day I watch my flock and they are truly happy out roaming. We do lose a few, but even chickens in coops can be victims of preditation. I think we all make the choice that works best for us, and live with the plusses and minuses. I wrote a little article while back about this whole thing, because sometimes I have to remind myself about the whole "loss" part of chicken ownership.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-with-loss-from-a-tenderhearted-farmer.72519/

I agree, I'm on hawk watch right now. I just walked out to find he had gotten one of our silkie mamas. I still have one hen unaccounted for. I'm not sure how many they will take in one day. He got a baby a few days ago, we watched him fly off with it in his talons. I love my hens free ranging but am sad when nature takes its course. I wonder if the sound of the babies are what is keeping the hawk coming back. I have a mama who flew the coop to nest in the goat pen so that is where she has been raising her 11 babies. She's the best mama I have ever seen. She is a silver phoenix. I'm going to hang a few cd's as a deterrent. I'm wondering what are peoples thoughts about Predator Pee and goats as protectors??

 

[orrpeople]

I agree, I'm on hawk watch right now. I just walked out to find he had gotten one of our silkie mamas. I still have one hen unaccounted for. I'm not sure how many they will take in one day. He got a baby a few days ago, we watched him fly off with it in his talons. I love my hens free ranging but am sad when nature takes its course. I wonder if the sound of the babies are what is keeping the hawk coming back. I have a mama who flew the coop to nest in the goat pen so that is where she has been raising her 11 babies. She's the best mama I have ever seen. She is a silver phoenix. I'm going to hang a few cd's as a deterrent. I'm wondering what are peoples thoughts about Predator Pee and goats as protectors??

We have one area of yard that really seemed like a hawk magnet, so we put fishing line back and forth from tree to tree and tied some Mylar ribbon to it. But, so far, a good rooster seems to be a better deterrent for us. They get the hens chicks to safety pretty quickly, and are not afraid to take one on.

 

[dekel18042]

I'm wondering what are peoples thoughts about Predator Pee and goats as protectors??[/QUOTE]

We live in a rural area where many keep chickens or some kind of poultry. Some of the poultry ranges within pastures where sheep, goats, cattle or horses graze and it seems that there are very few losses under these conditions.
Predators don't seem to want to come into a pasture with four footed livestock and hawks usually won't come down.
Now if you have dogs harassing the livestock that might be another story but for the usual predators here, mostly foxes and hawks, the birds are left alone.
We do have raccoons and possums at night but the birds are locked up then.

 

[WingsOnTheBus]

Thanks everyone for your replies! We're keeping them on watch for now when they range, and planning to construct a covered run for when we have to be gone.

The lack of feathers at the scene was what perplexed me, too--granted, it was a windy day. Do foxes and other land predators usually not leave feathers? If it was an aerial predator, I now suspect the bald eagles I found out about. They're new to our area, which would explain why we haven't had an incident in previous years.

 

[BenAnnaMama]

We have one area of yard that really seemed like a hawk magnet, so we put fishing line back and forth from tree to tree and tied some Mylar ribbon to it. But, so far, a good rooster seems to be a better deterrent for us. They get the hens chicks to safety pretty quickly, and are not afraid to take one on.

I am ordering some ribbon from Amazon today! Thanks for the tip..

I'm also keeping the goats in that area for now. We have plenty of roosters too. We don't get many losses usually but when we do they always get our favorite ones....