In November I hatched 10 Black Copper Marans and 10 Ameracunas. After 5 weeks I put them outside in the run with a coop. If a butterfly flew over them they all hauled butt to the coop. In December I hatched a dozen Silver Laced Wyandotts, placed them outside in the smae run/coop(the BCM's & Ameracunas moved to new diggs) I came home at lunch yesterday to find a huge red tailed hawk sitting on the top of the coop waiting to select which chick he wanted for lunch. The chicks were having a grand time scratching and running around the pen, totaly ignorant of what was about to happen. How can the Wyandotts be so STUPID and the BCM's & Americaunas be so aware. If I wouldnt have come home the hawk would have had a feast, probably with an audience of the other chicks.
I've noticed that my silver laced wyandottes are not the sharpest knives in the drawer but your observation may be biased by the fact the wyandotte chicks were younger than your other chicks when exposed to danger. If the hawk got one of them and the rest were still oblivious to the threat then I would agree that you have some 'mentally challanged' birds.
That's how hawks operate. They sit still, waiting for the right opportunity, while the chickens forget the hawk is there.
