Hawk looking in my chicken coop

[catjac1975]

I had a young hawk light upon a fence post to my chicken coup. The roosters were jumping up at it and the squawking by all the chickens was deafening. The cats suddenly appeared and was slowing walking towards it along the fence. We have lots of hawks and only once lost a beautiful young rooster to what appeared to be a hawk attack. It was a beautiful Blue Cochin who was to become our new breeder. I went out and yelled at it. It was in no hurry to leave even with me out there. It finally took off. We have some pretty young chickens that would have been a tasty morsel for the young bird.

 

[journey11]

Uh oh! What will you do?

 

[catjac1975]

Hope the cats do their job!

 

[bobm]

Depending on the type and size of the hawk ... the large hawk will make a tasty meal of the cat. Also, a barn owl snatched a full grown cat off of my next door neighbor's deck railing one early evening as they were enjoying a drink with friends and carried it off to feed it's owletts.

 

[catjac1975]

It was small. But his Momma was probably not far off. We haven't had too much trouble with them. Lots of tasty mice I guess.

 

[897tgigvib]

Before Peeper became an indoor cat, some Raptor according to the vet, tried to take him. Luckily Peeper, a mainly British Shorthair, heavy boned, muscular, and athletic, survived, along with a 383 dollar vet bill, surgeries, and a lot of heartache worrying if he'd pull through.

I think for a Hawk or other Raptor problem a temwork of some dog that is active and sharp outdoors who works well with a healthy and strong cat or cats. Hopefully the dog would be one who only barks when necessary to scare off the raptors.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Just yesterday while I was sitting int he car waiting for DW (what's new?) I was watching a few of our chickens grazing in the front yard. In about 1/10 of a second the rooster squawked a warning call and all of them ran under some bushes. About one second later a big red shouldered hawk landed right where they had been grazing. I jumped out of the car and the hawk took off to a nearby tree. If only I had my gun with bird shot. We've lost chickens over the years but not too many.

 

[journey11]

Eeep! I didn't know they'd take a full grown cat. My cat is rather smallish and pure white. She'd stand out.

It's illegal to shoot them here. They were endangered. I see them everywhere now.

One day I was driving down the road and I saw what was either a hawk or an owl, wings spread out and hanging upside-down from the top of a telephone pole. I wish I'd stopped and gotten a picture of it. Can't imagine what on earth could have happened to it, except maybe electrocution, but I always thought birds couldn't get electrocuted because they aren't grounded. Otherwise it looks like a cartoon hawk maybe flew into the pole, but he would have had very poor vision maybe? And upside down? Still scratching my head about that one...

 

[Smiles Jr.]

. . . It's illegal to shoot them here.

At PlayStation Farm it's illegal to attack my chickens. When that happens my chickens are endangered.

 

[journey11]

Yeah, chickens have rights too!