Silkie thread!

[BuckNBark Farm]

I've always wondered about that. I know scientists have proven that the fear of the silhouette of a hawk shape is innate in chicks.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.23...2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103034682053

I fly my parrots outside, so have read a lot on hawk behavior and have consulted a lot with a friend of mine, an avian vet who specializes in falcons and birds of prey.

As far as I know, none of my chickens (oldest 8 months) have had any close encounters with hawks, but my parrots most certainly have. The parrots are housed outside 24/7 most of the year (inside for the next few days with this nasty cold front). The parrots alert when a vulture flies overhead although they have calmed down a lot in the 18 months they have lived in Texas and been exposed to vultures. In the past few days, it seems the parrots aren't even alerting for the vultures anymore.

Next door are a large flock of older chickens, a couple of peacocks and it sounds like a goose or two.

My chickens will react to alarm calls from my parrots, the peacocks, goose and the chickens next door, even my dogs although I'm not sure they are alerting to the dogs alarm calls or they are more worried that the dogs will attack them. The other day the free ranging flock were with me, foraging in an open area when the geese next door started yelling. My young flock ran very quickly to the fence line, which has overhanging trees. Another time, my neighbor called to say she had seen a fox on her property. My chickens were very upset, even the deer were upset. I'm happy to see that all the prey animals seem to alert off each other.

So far, touch wood, I haven't lost any to predation. I hope my roosters will do their job and protect the flock, which is why I have them. They've had some safe practices of protecting the flock from big birds when my parrots have gone to ground near the chickens and the cockerels have attacked and chased them off--good safe practices so when something really dangerous arrives, they won't hesitate and will just attack. Hawks in general won't risk being attacked on the ground when they are compromised by holding struggling prey, so they'll give up. Hawks have a ratchet system around the tendons of their legs so that once closed, it takes no effort to keep their feet clenched. It is a two step process to release their grip, they first have to open the tendon and then it can slide. When they are in a panic, often they can't release their grip, so they tend to avoid being down on the ground grabbing something too big to fly off with when they could be attacked.

Mine don't respond to hawks. They respond to crows! And during winter, we have tons of them. The neighbor's chickens come down here. Day before last, the stray roo sounded the alarm when a HUGE hawk flew low. My chickens looked shocked.."What the heck was that??".

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote: you need some guinea's they'll teach everyone what to fear...my ducks instinctively know to watch and run from hawks

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

you need some guinea's they'll teach everyone what to fear...my ducks instinctively know to watch and run from hawks

They are in covered pens, but they are learning to "hunker" against the side of it to hide. Finally. Yay for the stray chickens! They were getting on my nerves-afraid of mites and such- but, I guess they can hang around. They like the grain in my horse's turds.

-pam

 

[Fancychooklady]

The key to chicks learning about predators is having a rooster around. They learn very young to duck for cover when they hear that low growl that the roo makes.

 

[kmollyhughes]

A while back I read a post by someone asking if silkies were good layers. All the responses said yes...when they weren't broody. Mine were still young and I thought yes! They are really good layers compared to what I was expecting. 7 hens in their coop, usually at least 5+ eggs a day....until my first girl went broody....then my second girl went broody.............then my third girl went broody.......now it looks like ANOTHER girl wants to sit?!?!? It just made me laugh thinking back to that comment and her responses. Letting two sit on eggs, might have to steal a chick to put under other girls to get them moving again. Lol Watch! I'll end up with 6-7 chickens with one chick each. Grrrrrr!

 

[SilkieMom8875]

Yes that is what happened with our first hawk in counter but I don't know what happened this time? I have 4 roo's

 

[SilkieMom8875]

That is what happened to me too!! Started out with one broody then ended with five and four of them are great moms. They stole eggs too so now I have seventeen babies lol !!

 

[kmollyhughes]

They're going broody like mad around here.  Ella just hatched out two of the Professor's eggs, now the Professor is trying to go broody herself.  She found a hole where she could wiggle under the shelf the nesting boxes are on.  Until I got the lumber to close it up, I'd have to drag her out every day and throw her in the yard several times a day.  Now that the hole's patched, she's sitting beside it and I still have to throw her out in the yard.  But she's out wandering around for 2-3 hours before she remembers she's broody, so I think she's finally snapping out of it.  No sooner am I seeing progress towards non-broodiness in her and Henrietta, who's a RIR, surprised me by spending two days on a nest growling at anyone who came near her.  I had to wear gloves to get her off her nest because I found out she's a mean broody who will draw blood.  I don't know what's wrong with these hens.  It's cold out.  You'd think nature would be telling them this isn't the best time to be raising a family.   

I know! It was in the 20's here in Nevada last night. But they are determined little things. And I have RIRs that have been laying a month or two and they are MEAN in the nest box. Most of my other girls don't care if I reach under them....those girls....oouuch. "You take your time...I'll wait, and keep my fingers." Lol

 

[kmollyhughes]

That is what happened to me too!! Started out with one broody then ended with five and four of them are great moms. They stole eggs too so now I have seventeen babies lol !!

17 babies?! I hope I get at least half that many!! 5 more days....

 

[ChickNmamma]

A while back I read a post by someone asking if silkies were good layers. All the responses said yes...when they weren't broody. Mine were still young and I thought yes! They are really good layers compared to what I was expecting. 7 hens in their coop, usually at least 5+ eggs a day....until my first girl went broody....then my second girl went broody.............then my third girl went broody.......now it looks like ANOTHER girl wants to sit?!?!? It just made me laugh thinking back to that comment and her responses.

Letting two sit on eggs, might have to steal a chick to put under other girls to get them moving again. Lol Watch! I'll end up with 6-7 chickens with one chick each. Grrrrrr!

Well I am glad you translated the information correctly - Yes - they are great layers - until they come down with a case of the broodies - which is HIGHLY contagious!

Mark the eggs well - because they will trade/steal eggs. I have one in a coop now (and another threatening) and I just found a marked egg in the non broody nest! If you are lucky they will share - both the hatching and the raising of the chicks. Last go-round with my pen worked that way. One serious (now sitting again) one wanna be and one other that started earlier but ended up being a rotten mother. The rotten mother hatched hers out while I was gone - lost 3 because she wouldn't get off the nest and the chicks ended up in the yard. One survived because I threw her out to be with the crying chick when I got home. The second one started hatching when I returned - her three stayed under her very well. The wanna be ended up caring for all 4 when they were around her - co-mothering. I didn't give her any new eggs (she sat on the other birds eggs when they would let her in) and took all the eggs away when the chicks had all hatched.

The only drawback I found was some of the eggs didn't hatch. Late quitters (never seen with single broodies before) and dead in shell - probably because with the fuss of two birds the eggs may have been moved around and outside of the undersides of the bird at night, especially since the rest of the coop slept in there too. I found 4 other sleepers in the nest box this time - noticed one of the eggs was under a sleeping 6 week old chick instead of the broody and closed off the nest box the next night. If that happened in the past those eggs would have gotten chilled overnight because the sleepers are not brooding the eggs and they wouldn't keep them properly covered.