Let me start by saying that I USED to LIKE hawks. Now I hate them.
Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that they are just doing what comes naturally to them, BUT....
I purposely do not free range my birds. I have hawks, owls, coyotes, and bald eagles that would all LOVE to eat my birds. There are a few that are super easy to catch that I will let out in the yard when I am out there, and when I have already checked the field next door and the sky for potential threats. SO, when I spend a couple hundred dollars on 1/2" x 1" welded wire to enclose my tractor runs, I expect my birds to be safe. I am wrong. I had a cooper's hawk kill 3 silkies through 1" chicken wire a year ago. So when I built my 2 new tractors this year, I used the welded wire. I just went outside to see a cooper's hawk flying away from the tractor that has my lavender ameraucana chicks in it. I ran right over to find a dead baby in the corner of the run. I pulled it out, expecting to see one kill shot on the head. HOLY COW was I surpised to find SEVERAL spots on the head (the whole thing is one big bruise) a chunk missing from the neck, and peck marks over one shoulder and under the wing. HOW IN THE HECK DID A HAWK THAT SIZE DO THAT THROUGH WIRE THAT SMALL? Not only are the spaces in the wire small, but because of the framing, there is a 2" drop from the wire to the ground, where the solid 2x2 sits. As it turns out, I am lucky I only lost one chick, I checked on all the other chicks (which had all since run inside) and there are 4 more with bloody combs where they got pecked by the hawk too. They are all too freaked out to let me doctor them right now, so hopefully they don't do more damage to each other before it gets dark tonight when I can deal with them. These are 6 week old babies, three of the others that got pecked are LF, the 4th and the one I lost were bantams.
I just feel really frustrated - apparently there is NOTHING I can do to protect my babies from the G-D*%# hawks!
I purposely do not free range my birds. I have hawks, owls, coyotes, and bald eagles that would all LOVE to eat my birds. There are a few that are super easy to catch that I will let out in the yard when I am out there, and when I have already checked the field next door and the sky for potential threats. SO, when I spend a couple hundred dollars on 1/2" x 1" welded wire to enclose my tractor runs, I expect my birds to be safe. I am wrong. I had a cooper's hawk kill 3 silkies through 1" chicken wire a year ago. So when I built my 2 new tractors this year, I used the welded wire. I just went outside to see a cooper's hawk flying away from the tractor that has my lavender ameraucana chicks in it. I ran right over to find a dead baby in the corner of the run. I pulled it out, expecting to see one kill shot on the head. HOLY COW was I surpised to find SEVERAL spots on the head (the whole thing is one big bruise) a chunk missing from the neck, and peck marks over one shoulder and under the wing. HOW IN THE HECK DID A HAWK THAT SIZE DO THAT THROUGH WIRE THAT SMALL? Not only are the spaces in the wire small, but because of the framing, there is a 2" drop from the wire to the ground, where the solid 2x2 sits. As it turns out, I am lucky I only lost one chick, I checked on all the other chicks (which had all since run inside) and there are 4 more with bloody combs where they got pecked by the hawk too. They are all too freaked out to let me doctor them right now, so hopefully they don't do more damage to each other before it gets dark tonight when I can deal with them. These are 6 week old babies, three of the others that got pecked are LF, the 4th and the one I lost were bantams.
I just feel really frustrated - apparently there is NOTHING I can do to protect my babies from the G-D*%# hawks!
