when are chicks large enough to survive hawk predation?

[mrsHinWI]

Our red ranger chicks are 4 and a half weeks and seem huge. We'd like to let them out into a large enclosure without wire overtop- when are they big enough to not get eaten by hawks?

 

[TXchickenchick]

I have had hawks kill large, adult chickens. I don't think a chicken is ever safe from them if they can get to them.

 

[Sabz]

Yeah I think the same. I've seen - 3 years ago - a hawk kill a big crow and eat it in our lawn right in front of us. Definitely I wouldn't say adult chickens are safe

 

[mrsHinWI]

Oh- that's discouraging. I imagined maybe at 2 lb or so they'd be safe from most air threats...

Thanks for your input! You have likely saved a chicken.

 

[Sabz]

hehe maybe it also depends on the chicken breed and the hawks in the place where you live.

I remember my experience with the hawk. I was baking pizza in the kitchen, looking outside. Then straight from the sky comes something like a cannon ball!! It is amazing the speed the hawk used to pin down the poor bird on the ground.

Then, it decapitated the bird in the snow (middle of winter).
After it left, all we could see was feathers everywhere. Not having seen what happened, I would still be wondering what happened.

Here is the bad guy I kept the more graphic images for myself, lol.

 

[mrsHinWI]

Wow! That's crazy! That hawk is an amazing bird in his own right, just wish they'd eat something else...