Will hawks get my chickens?

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Yes, hawks will take your chickens, especially young ones. So will crows. I lost a 6 mo old wyandotte to a red tail several months ago, while I was in the yard. I kept everyone in the covered run for another 4 weeks until they got bigger. I specifically keep the heavy breeds to be safer from hawks...and so far, I have only lost one in 5 years. My girls free range in the am and pm.

The best advice I got from this BYC site on hawks was to strategically place furniture or small structures (tables, benches, etc) around your coop and pen area so that if your chickens are free ranging they have a place to duck and hide from the predators above.

I think your chickens are too young to be out, even with you, particularily if you say the hawks are showing up. A hawk can strike so fast you would likely not be able to prevent the kill even if you are close by.

Welcome to the chicken world and this site. There is a ton of sound advice, wonderful folks and a community who is probably as crazy about chickens are you are.....
Anne
 
Thanks Adondro..good info. I didn't realize crows are a threat as well! I have seen some huge ones around! I'll keep my little feathered babies in their run. I noticed that you are from Petaluma, I grew up in St. Helena, I live in Utah now though. I have lots of family in Petaluma, Santa Rosa and surrounding area. I miss the ocean and vineyards the most.
 
The hawk won! We are broken hearted. The chicken tractor was made very strong, heavy wire all around and on top then placed inside the stall of our Mare Motel which had wire fencing around the entire stall. A hawk got through the top, landed on the top of the Chicken tractor, wings spread and squawking & tried to get through the wire. It did not get in the cage but scared my little goosie to death. My poor 11 year old son watched the whole thing! he was running toward the barn trying to scare away the hawk and found the 5 week old goose had just died of fright, the hawk never touched it. We are still in disbelief! So many of you had walked me through hatching our first goose. We had 4 African Geese eggs and only one hatched on Mothers day. The hawk came 6/25. Just the week before one of our little ducklings died of fright too. I had let them out of their cage and one of the great danes got too close and the duck just fell over. I picked it up and held it on my lap but he started having seisures and just fell over dead.

My neighbor told me he raised a bunch of turkeys years ago in Montana and there was an earth quake that shook the ground for just a few seconds but over 100 turkeys fell over dead.

Has anyone else had anything like this happen?
 
This is an old thread but it came up first in my results when I googled.

I'm facing the same situation. I've got 14 chickens that will be 6 weeks old this Saturday, and I'm getting ready to move them outdoors. There are lots of hawks around here, and I think they have been cruising over our coop as we build it to check on the progress.

I've decided to build a temporary run completely closed in with chicken wire until the girls are a bit older, and I'm trying to figure out what to do long term to deter the hawks around here.

I have 8 Speckled Sussex and 6 Delaware, so they'll be large birds when fully mature, but I still want to put deer netting over the permanent run. It's too large to cover with chicken wire - about 100 ft. X 60 ft.

I have a few questions:

1. Does anyone have any long-term experience with the deer netting? How long will it last?

2. How effective, in general, are roosters at keeping a lookout for hawks? (Since I have very young children, the good people of this community wisely advised me against getting a roo at this point. Like the first question, I'm just thinking about the future.)

3. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good shrub or tree that I could plant in my run to provide protection from hawks, shade, and possibly food in the form of seed, fruit, etc.?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Jason
 
A hawk will try to carry it off and if it can't it will just eat it on the ground.
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