Even I'm afraid of broodies! My broody hen was the sweetest thing until she had chicks and transformed. Then I had to rig up a pull cord to whip open the nursery door in the mornings, from a good 20 feet away, and then I'd run back to the house before she could get me! She was scary!
Thank you for your" feel good story" , Tweety is quite the girl!! I like her attitude throwing the bigger hens out of nest boxes, etc. Tweety likes to kick behind. As far as other hawk deterents, I've saw one feed store had "windsocks," of different birds and they move and change direction continually with the wind. I think they might be good for scaring off raptors, as they have unpredictable behaviors.
My mummy chicken had a go at me once when she had left one chick at the bottom of the ramp and it was running about shouting 'mum'. I stupidly stuck my hand in to help, mummy (tiny bantam) came down that ramp like a wild ting and battered me lol!
I have had Tweety since she was a day old. My sister-in-law came over one day and handed me this little fuzzy legged yellow ball of feathers. She said she had see it at the feed store and just knew I would want it. I thought it would get killed when I put her out with the others, but at 4 weeks old when I let her out in the yard she let them know she was not one to be messed with, and now she is 4th in the pecking order out of 40.
She is a great mom and a very good egg layer. Weird thing is I or any human for that matter can just walk up to her and pick up the babies and she will just watch you and make sure your not going to hurt them, but when she is sitting on eggs she will try to turn your hand into a bloody stump if you reach fo rthe eggs. The only other time she will get upset with you is if you have a treat and she thinks you are not giving it to her fast enough. You have to be fast with the treats, she has babies to feed. She has turned into one of my best hens.
You've got a good momma!! Wow. Just this morning while visiting a friend, my husband and I witnessed a hawk dive down on his neighbor's flock and come away with one of them. That was a loud rucous!