What to do about hawks?

[Jungleexplorer]

Maybe locking your birds up for one month would force the hawks and falcons to move on. Then start flying them again. At the first hawk attack, lock them up for a couple weeks.

Tried this. The longer I kept the birds locked up the more hawks showed up. They would actually spend hours walking around the edge of the pen trying to find a way in. As soon as I let the birds out it was like grey hounds after a rabbit. The hawks are afraid of me and fly off when I walk up, but come right back as soon as I leave. Now that all the birds are dead, I have not seen a hawk in days. I think it is the actual cooing of the birds that attracts them.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Well Jungleexplorer you seem to be an expert on what does not work. I would get pigeons again and try methods discussed to see what does work. Starting with and impenetrable loft. I am interested in this post because like you I suffer hawk attacks as well (not to the extend you described luckily). My crow family patrol the neighbourhood regularly. Any lessons learned I would most likely employ in my set up.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Well Jungleexplorer you seem to be an expert on what does not work. I would get pigeons again and try methods discussed to see what does work. Starting with and impenetrable loft. I am interested in this post because like you I suffer hawk attacks as well (not to the extend you described luckily). My crow family patrol the neighbourhood regularly. Any lessons learned I would most likely employ in my set up.

My dad actually traps them for me in the city. He lives 150 miles away and if I am coming to visit him, I tell to set his trap and catch me some birds. I don't think I am going to try anymore until spring. Too many other things going right now. This dove thing is more of a side project for me. It was kind of like, "Hey dad, you have thousands of Collard doves and pigeons around your house. Catch some of them for me and I will start a colony on my farm." I figured they since they were wild birds they would be better at dealing with hawks and stuff. No way I could have predicted the massacre that they were headed for. I still think it would be nice to have a flock of pigeons and collard doves flying around my farm living along side my chickens. I plants six acres of feed grains all year long for my chickens to free forage upon so there is an abundance of food for them, but if they can't stay alive and produce enough offspring to keep up with losses to predators, then it may be too much trouble for me.

 

[laughingdog]

i only ment the great horned owls and goshawks were good idea as BOPs to have around, and would be better having a dominant pair of either, as theyd chase or kill other BOPs off, and they primarily prefer land game, except the horned owls who will hunt chickens fiercly when nesting, as they will work together and have one sit on top of wired top coop and/or one at sides, and will alternate making chickens into frenzy then snip heads ect off as the chickens frantically stick them through or too close (ive actually seen this in person and on cams). DNR allows for use of sandbags shot at BOPs as non lethal deturant (i asked), so said paintballs should be fine, as long as toxicity to the paint is not discovered to be an issue. though they advocate having them come and trap and rehab and relocate (they usually just kill or keep for breeding programs ive found in personal experiance with working with them in past). ive done hawk rehab, and falconry and had a nasty female goshawk that wouldnt touch a dead layed open pigeon even, but would take after fiercely any other BOP she happened upon in the sky, and was led to believe it was quite normal as she saw me as her mate and were we lived and areas hunted our territory. had a great horned owl that was wild that lived up in nich of my condo roof at my condo, and it never messed with the pigeons, though did eye up the nests, and freaked out the crows, ate the rats and squirrels, and chased all the redtails and coopers hawks off. it didnt do to well i think against the turkey vultures though. when they moved in it disapeared suddenly after being harrassed by them, and a young turkey vulture was constantly trying to rob my nests and take young birds, nothing but a good sturdy broom detoured it. not trying to be trouble and was misunderstood, just saying some basics that seemed to work for me and mostly others that have tried to help me out in prevention. i think the hawks are pretty and one of each kind visiting keeps my flying types strong culling week, but your situation sounds just horrible and needs to be dealt with. get a fence around area birds hang out, get a couple dogs and train them to guard or ignore your birds, and encourage them to attack BOPs. simplest solution thats as low maintainance as filling feed and water, and removing poop, things youll have to do for pidgies anyway.

 

[laughingdog]

OP- what is your avatar? as it is a beautiful cock, and like some ones i used to keep as rescues..

 

[Jungleexplorer]

OP- what is your avatar? as it is a beautiful cock, and like some ones i used to keep as rescues..

It is a Cubalaya.

 

[Hokum Coco]

My dad actually traps them for me in the city. He lives 150 miles away and if I am coming to visit him, I tell to set his trap and catch me some birds. I don't think I am going to try anymore until spring. Too many other things going right now. This dove thing is more of a side project for me. It was kind of like, "Hey dad, you have thousands of Collard doves and pigeons around your house. Catch some of them for me and I will start a colony on my farm." I figured they since they were wild birds they would be better at dealing with hawks and stuff. No way I could have predicted the massacre that they were headed for. I still think it would be nice to have a flock of pigeons and collard doves flying around my farm living along side my chickens. I plants six acres of feed grains all year long for my chickens to free forage upon so there is an abundance of food for them, but if they can't stay alive and produce enough offspring to keep up with losses to predators, then it may be too much trouble for me.

Spring and summer may turn out to be the best time to fly your birds with the least threat of hawk attacks. Hope we might have helped you in some small way with our brainstorming. Give us a heads up when you replenish your dove and pigeon stock and keep us up to date with your challenges.

Your truly
Hokum Coco
.

 

[builtonrock]

My great pyranees sleeps, the guineas set off the alarms as soon as bop fly nearby, call ducks, muscovys, old english bantis, silkies, sumatra, peas, laying hens, boar goats and rabits run for cover, dog awakes runs, barks, jumps to attack the sky invaders, they fly off every one resumes feeding for a couple hours before the whole episode begins again. My prior anatolian shepherd of 14 years did the same and as long as I have the guinea alarm all goes well. I was between working dogs and I lost almost everyone.

 

[rollkeeg877]

if you go out before getting your pigeons and get a fake owl hawks HATE like i mean HATE owls and the hawk will try to get rid of it but soon enough the hawk will go away

 

[fowlsessed]

WOW, quite a problem and one that seems very rare. I have no advice to give, sorry. Except...........looks like there is no legal solution, your gonna have to pull out the ......and..............
Anyway, That's not a Cubalaya in your avatar!! Jungle explorer. Or am I missing something? Who's/what's OP?