Trying to Foil a Red-Tailed Hawk

[Rooapalooza]

Well my hawk frenemy was back this morning. She seemed a bit confused by my dismantled coop (since all my quail are in their original, smaller, but apparently safer old coop). The quail carcass that I left out yesterday was gone almost immediately after sunset, so I'm thinking a possum ate her leftovers.

 

[jsr5]

Security, security and security?

think he meant shoot shovel shhhhh. I never ever do that . I have a backhoe.

 

[jspeese]

You got it, jsr5! I have zero tolerance for predators on my land killing my livestock. I know some folks say hawks have to eat too, but so does a tick! I don't know too many people who, if they get one, don't pull it off and burn it or flush it down the commode!

 

[jsr5]

yup to add only if they look like they are setting up shop to kill muy birds. and detterents haven't worked.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

My father-in-law shoots his shotgun into the air in the general direction when hawks are preying on our chickens, but he doesn't shoot the hawk. Seems to work for about a week at a time. Shotgun shells are cheap though and although I don't want hawks eating my birds, I also know hawks are a whole lot more rare than chickens.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

"Well, it's finally, happened, Zachary..." After years of letting my chickens free-range with hardly an incident of aerial predation, a red-tailed hawk has discovered the bounty.

Yesterday there was a lot of cackling going which I thought was just a hen and one of the roosters bragging about an egg. No big deal. About an hour later they were at it again and this time I noticed their fenced yards were deserted. Not a chicken in sight! They were all in the hen house. Thought I better check it out. Something not right.

As I stepped off the back porch steps, a huge RTH flew up off the ground from their run and off into the trees. I checked but there was no evidence it had gotten one of my birds. However, when I counted beaks last night, one of my BO was missing.

So today they are confined to the smallest, inner run. It doesn't give them much room, but I'm pretty sure the hawk can't get them there. My plan is to keep them confined for several days, maybe a week, in hopes the hawk will move on.

What do you guys think? Is there a snowball's chance there will work? Will post a pic shortly.

Sorry for your loss. Just last week I lost one of my BO's to a hawk or some other bird with no trace, not a feather in sight. Definitely going to read through this thread. My birds have been locked up for about a week now.