Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Cetawin]

Hey at least is not a hanging offense like being a horse thief is in some states.

You know you could tell that Judge that your birds are so perfect that they go for spa treatments once per month and just so happened they went the day before the show.

 

[Cetawin]

Kathy - I was thinking...you cannot just kill the hawk because they are protected howeveryou can contact your local Dept of wildlife or a Raptor Rehab and get information on getting rid of a nuisance bird, you can get permits to kill or capture them in some states if they are killing your birds and such. It is worth the phone calls to find out.

 

[kathyinmo]

Ya know, Lady Hawk, I think I will just do that. I am just sick about this. I am so sad, I could just scream. Those darling little Silkie girls were just the sweetest, tamest, lovely little things. They would follow us like a puppy, and loved to be loved on. Silly sweet things.

That dang hawk went right in the door of their little coop! Can you believe that! She was standing in the doorway. Inside were 2 broody Silkies, too! DS saw it happen, and ran to them. They love it outside, but I simply won't risk it. DS is so upset because he opened their coop door, and thought they were safe with him right there watching them. But ... noooooo!

I heard that having geese help to keep hawks away. We have a lake (or pond) behind our property that had 8 or 10 geese, and 8 ducks for the past couple years. This winter it froze over (there is an island where they stayed), and we believe a coyote got every single one of them. They are all gone, and now we have hawk problems. I dunno ... do you think that is true or a coincidence? If it is true, I will go out and get some more. Though they lived out there, they were actually pets of my neighbors, as well. They would go up to her door every morning and honk for treats!

Now I am worried about the rest of my chickens. Their coop (the layer's coop) has all kinds of shiney objects, to deter hawks .... but will it work????? My Jersey Giants are in another little coop next to that one, too. I just can't keep them all locked inside all day for a week. I don't have time to cover all these areas today, but I do have the netting to do it, because I have to go to work. DH won't be home until Wednesday. He's working in New Mexico and Texas, and will have a 16 hour drive home. I'm sure he will be exhausted. Oh geeeezzzz, just not enough time in a day, to get everything done!

Scott .... Tell me again, how did those hawks get into your chicken pen? Did they actually go through the fence? I'm just all worried about my security now. I have 4 foot hardware cloth buried 18 inches and then over 2 feet up from the bottom, to deter coons, coyotes, and dogs. But now, predators in the air!

Sorry for the rambling ....

 

[joletabey]

Kathy, you are not rambling, this is a serious concern- Cetawin is right, it will only get worse with the young coming in the spring. Once a hawk figures out where dinner is, they move in till they have cleaned out the population - at least that is what they do around here with rabbits. "Our" hawks ate all the rabbits (haven't seen a track in weeks- and I would see with all the snow) and have moved over a field or two, so I am hoping they nest elsewhere. I, too have netting to cover the run but have not gotten it done.

When you put it up, just check everywhere for the teeniest little gap that something could slip through -I use lightweight wire to lace the edges of anything together- my run is two widths of 2x3 tall with two feet of hardware cloth up the sides, and it is laced together so nothing can slide through the overlaps. Takes a while, but is worth it.

I, too, think you should call your DNR or whatever you have there - sometimes the 4-H people know who to call, or vets.

Just to add a Dellie note- my kids had 8 1/2 hours of sunshine yesterday!!!!

 

[DAFox]

Quote:
Oh no, Kathy! I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet babies. I don't have netting over my Silkie pen...but, I have a drake with them and 5 dogs outside! I've been thinking about getting geese and now I've decided to definitely get some. The Silkies only have a 4 ft tall fence, so I'll have to rebuild with 6ft and cover it, dang it. Here I was thinking that in our area, Kathy, the wild prey was enough for the hawks. By the way, the drake thinks that my Silkie Roo is his mate.
I'm off on Tuesday if you want another pair of hands to help cover your pens. Just PM me.
Dale-Ann

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
This will sound like some stupid comment from the crazy indian lady but it is true...Cyn and I have talked about this...in order to protect them from hawks and aerial attacks..think like the predator which means knowing them....let me give you insight into hawks that may help... Your two biggest aerial predators for chickens are hawks and eagles...Falcon usually will not mess with birds except chicks because they are just too small to handle an adult bird...the silkies....maybe but doubtful. Owls hunt at night 98.9% of the time and they will attack and carry off a full grown cat or small dog so a chicken stands no chance. So..your main worries...hawks and eagles (rare in MO).

The two are such completely different hunters that you would really need to leave your birds in a huge open area unattended for an eagle to come in. They are ubber observant. They look down from up to a mile high...they see your house, your coops, your dog, you, the screwdriver you left laying outside....they determine the risks, the potential problems and dangers and then decide if they dive....the entire dive time they are scanning everything in the area...looking for danger. You step outside and the eagle peels off and goes somewhere else to hunt.

Now the hawk in the same situation...never sees the coop wall, the fence, the lawnmower, you or the house....it sees a chicken. It also looks from a great height but it decides the chicken is dinner and it dives...it never sees anything else except that target. That is why hawks very very rarely miss...they are lethal killers because they target fixate for accuracy. The go for the neck, break it and the kill is quick. Now it is diving at your chicken and you walk outside, the hawk keeps diving...the chicken runs under a fence, the hawk keeps diving and slams into the fence ...why...it never sees the fence, never sees you it only sees the chicken.

Your hawk is a problem...it will fly into a coop, it will snatch a silkie sitting a foot from you and it will keep coming back until there is nothing left there for it to hunt. Geese will deter hawks...so will crows and blue jays...Personally, I feed a family of crows about 25' from my coop at the base of a tree they sit in...everytime a redtail comes in the area, all 6 of them go after it and chase it away. It is plan to add at least one large breed goose to m flock once I make this move...because the property is more open than what I have here, I want a big gander out there to make the birds think twice about diving for a chicken. That is also why I want large roosters.

I have noticed one thing about the hawks here...if the coop radio is on a talk radio station...they never get real close. When the radio is off or on a music station they will come in close enough for the crows to go after them. Shiny things that reflect light back at them (CDs, tin pie plates and silver bells) mess with their targeting and sight and can throw them off or make them avoid the area. A larger predator such an owl will deter the but the hawks evenually figure out that plastic owl is plastic because they will check it out and when it never leaves that spot, they will hit it...then the game is over.

Aviary netting it the only thing I can think of aside from getting rid of the hawk...I have netting over my run and nothing has breached it as of yet. I have had no predator losses (knocks on wood) yet. So, you could run some monofilament across the top of your run and string those little silver sleigh bells on it...run them crisscrossing over the top...the noise will not bother the chickens but it may help deter that hawk...especially if it hit the line once and gets tangled up or cannot get through. Hang some CDs...grab some nasty rap CDs and hang them up there. Play obnoxious sounds on a radio at there...heck I had a CD player out there once for the fox here...I played a Jeff Foxworthy CD..scared the crap out of the fox...DH and I were rolling laughing...fox sneaking up on the coop (the girls were locked inside) and it stopped listened to the voice and came closer...just then the crowd started clapping and hooping and hollering...the fox turned inside itself to get away from the coop.

Myself...I would catch the thing and take it to a rehabber. But I am crazy that way. His butt would have had a blanket tossed over him inside my coop. LOL If you do that, watch those talons and hold the head secure they have a bad bite. Hold the head and the back with those feet away from you.

Make the call today and find out about getting rid of it.

 

[Cetawin]

BTW does this look familiar to anyone?

Nosey Nosey Nosey sheeesh Camera Hog

 

[speckledhen]

The Delaware ladies are complete camera hogs, it's true! It's why I rarely get pics of the girls. Isaac strikes a pose because he is always looking for threats to his women and he's easier to photograph, at least for a few seconds, then he's in motion again. Such a love! He dustbathes more than any rooster I've ever seen. You know you have a good man when he pays attention to his daily grooming, right? LOL. He gets down with the girls or if he's out alone and they are penned, he'll dustbathe and sing the whole time, taking moments to watch the skies and alarm.

We have a couple of different hawk varieties that are hanging around here. They perch in the trees daily, call on and off all day long, swoop across the yard, etc. Haven't lost a bird to one yet, but if this keeps up, it may be soon. The Delaware girls are the most vulnerable right now since Ike can't stay with them all the time and only half their pen is crisscrossed with CD's on mason's line.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
HAHAHAHAH, I love it.

Kathy,

I didn't read all of it but it sounds like you are having hawk trouble. How horrible, I am sorry.

I know I will have it here too. I saw the first hawk of the season yesterday sitting up on the telephone pole.

I have geese but I really don't think they are going to be any help, hawks are just too fast. I bought deer netting from the local farm store. It is not expensive and big. A big roll goes a long way. Double it up, triple it up, whatever you need. I zip tied it to the tops of the runs. Birds don't fly out or in.

Free ranging is a different story.

LadyHawk--I love you avatar.

 

[Laney]

Kathy, I'm so sorry about the Hawk problem. I know you don't want to keep your babies in for a week, but it could be the best thing for them. LadyHawk was talking about the behavior of hawks, and she is absolutely right. If there is no food they move on. I have not had a problem with hawks that hung around probably because my chickens are in with goats. I expected much move of a problem because my chickens totally free range in the 4 acre pasture they are in.

We did have a hawk problem when we lived in Richmond, it was not with chickens, it was with birds at our feeders. It was as if we had set up a lovely buffet for them. Birds would come to our feeder, the Hawk would sit on the roof of the house behind us, see one he liked and dive.

We took the feeder down. We couldn't deal with being responsible for the death of the birds. Nature is nature, and we knew hawks were going to eat the birds, but we were not going to facilitate the process. After a week the hawk moved on to someplace with easier prey, we put the feeder back up and no more problems.

Perhaps having your birds that are vulnerable to him out of sight is exactly what you need to do to make him move on. If this is a young hawk and he is out hunting on his own he is old enough to move on to other hunting grounds. It is however Raptor nesting season now. They nest in the cold weather of early February.....so this would be a yearling you are looking at.

Laney