I was outside today tending to my Tomato garden and hear one of my chickens go crazy.
I go to see what is going on seeing if my cats are attacking them again. As soon as I get to the chicken coup I see this big brown and gray-ish bird (I assume it is a hawk) flying off with one of my chickens.
That sounds crazy. Never had a problem with hawks, but we had some major issues with raccoons when we had chickens. Those things are absolutely vicious, horrendous animals.
Hopefully it doesn't come back. A hawk would be tough to deal with, since it's not like you can really trap them like you can raccoons and other land-based predators.
Put chicken wire over the chicken enclosure. This will keep the hawk out.
Assuming you have your chickens cooped up, and not letting them free-range.
Yeah, we get some hawks around here, which is a bit of a surprise since I live smack-dab in the center of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. There's nothing like stepping out the back door to your apartment building and seeing a hawk perched on the fence, under 10' away, giving you the evil eye, and his eyes are on the same level as yours. You really don't understand how big those birds are until that point...
Hordini wrote:That sounds crazy. Never had a problem with hawks, but we had some major issues with raccoons when we had chickens. Those things are absolutely vicious, horrendous animals.
Hopefully it doesn't come back. A hawk would be tough to deal with, since it's not like you can really trap them like you can raccoons and other land-based predators.
raccoons are like little furry raptors. I've seen them attack cats and dogs. My old man had to constantly kill them, I think we lived in a raccoon den. They were every where.
We've got foxes where I am in Maryland, and apparently coyotes have started moving into the western areas so it's only a matter of time until they make their way here. I don't like the idea of having to kill coyotes, but if they attack my flocks / herds...
Hordini wrote:That sounds crazy. Never had a problem with hawks, but we had some major issues with raccoons when we had chickens. Those things are absolutely vicious, horrendous animals.
Hopefully it doesn't come back. A hawk would be tough to deal with, since it's not like you can really trap them like you can raccoons and other land-based predators.
raccoons are like little furry raptors. I've seen them attack cats and dogs. My old man had to constantly kill them, I think we lived in a raccoon den. They were every where.
Yeah, we had to trap and kill a bunch of them when we had chickens. It's the only way to deal with them really, unless you just want to have a chicken house full of dead chickens. It didn't help that they were overpopulated either.
Mannahnin wrote:The gods took an offering. Ask for something.
Heh. Another chicken
Automatically Appended Next Post: There was a guy in Maine that got killed by an Owl a few years back. He was wearing a fur hat and the Owl swooped in behind him, aparently thinking the hat was prey, and put a talon through the back of his skull.
I kid. If he had actually offered it consciously to the gods, and then the hawk took it, I would certainly construe that as the gods' acceptance, and them being open to prayers for something. As it stands, it's just the nature spirits taking theirs. That's why we build coops and wire enclosures, after all.
I once had a seagull nick a bag of chips out of my hand, they do that a lot in Blackpool. A chicken though, I feel for you and that but kudos to the hawk.
And the wire over the top of the cage is probably the way to go, he knows where to get free lunch now.
Vulcan wrote:Put chicken wire over the chicken enclosure. This will keep the hawk out.
Nope, that will keep the hawk in. At speed during a dive they'll bust right through the chicken wire. I've seen it happen. Well, not seen it, but found a busted up hawk in with the chickens and a hawk shaped hole in the chicken wire 'ceiling'.
Well we had a snake eat one of our chickens, come back two weeks later, kill a second that was too big for it to eat, so it tried to kill a third and eat that. My dad found it hidden in a tarp, and proceded to shoot it with a speargun, drop a cinderblock on it and set it on fire. It somehow got away, came back 3 weeks later, ate a neighbours chicken, got found by my dad again a couple days later, where it was shot again by a speargun a set alight, yet again. No more snakes since .
dæl wrote:I once had a seagull nick a bag of chips out of my hand, they do that a lot in Blackpool.
I had a Barbary ape do that to me in Gibraltar, nasty little creatures.
When I was growing up we had our entire chicken flock wiped out by foxes twice so my dad developed a shoot on sight policy. As foxes are noctural he used to use a spotlight and aimed the for eye reflection (in a big empty field behind the house with no one for miles), he stopped doing that though when he shot a sheep.
Coolyo294 wrote:An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.
An eagle can carry off a dachshund?
I happened to be standing in the back yard when a hawk came ranging in looking at TBone. I did a King Kong standing over Tbone and grabbed him up into the house, but by the time I came out with a shotgun the hawk had departed. Lucky hawk. I'm good with a bird gun.
It could have been worse...a family friend was letting her teacup poodle play outside and as she watched a hawk grabbed 'em and carried poodle munchies off
Huffy wrote:It could have been worse...a family friend was letting her teacup poodle play outside and as she watched a hawk grabbed 'em and carried poodle munchies off
Someday, if we have the time & money, my s/o & I want to take up falconry, then head down to the local parks and hunt poodle and handbag-dogs.
Huffy wrote:It could have been worse...a family friend was letting her teacup poodle play outside and as she watched a hawk grabbed 'em and carried poodle munchies off
Someday, if we have the time & money, my s/o & I want to take up falconry, then head down to the local parks and hunt poodle and handbag-dogs.
Just remember:
1) Pit Bulls can jump. George caught several birds who got uppity.
I think the hawk benefit scandal post was the best one so far Man killed by owl was a close second. You need to rig a chicken with explosives, wait for the hawk to strike again and then detonate that fether.
Frazzled wrote:2) Wiener dogs are prepared for this contingency.
They need to work out a MAD policy against huskies. Last winter I was mushing, and this little old lady came to see the sleds with her dog...
Wiener dog was NOT prepared...
They do. Team Wienie upgraded (or downgraded depending on point of view) their human transport option to Frazzled. He comes with pre installed gun turrents.
Melissia wrote:Every day that ends with Y, my kitten tries to steal my food.
Yay for spray bottles.
We tried that with my cat for awhile but he kept on getting into the butter.
So then my dad took to sticking his head under a cold tap for a minute, and that didn't work either.
I just got used to there being cat spit in the butter.
Cats works more with odours/taste than punishment. If you didn't start early with the spray, or if she picked up early the habit of eating human food, then you're fethed. Put lemon juice/anything sour on the butter, if it really bothers you, that's the best chance you have, and even then, he probably won't stop.
Putting the cats head under the tap is just going to make the cat go nuts and hate your father/try a reconciliation, it wont make him realize he did something to piss you off.
Melissia wrote:Every day that ends with Y, my kitten tries to steal my food.
Yay for spray bottles.
We tried that with my cat for awhile but he kept on getting into the butter.
So then my dad took to sticking his head under a cold tap for a minute, and that didn't work either.
I just got used to there being cat spit in the butter.
Cats works more with odours/taste than punishment. If you didn't start early with the spray, or if she picked up early the habit of eating human food, then you're fethed. Put lemon juice/anything sour on the butter, if it really bothers you, that's the best chance you have, and even then, he probably won't stop.
Well he's dead now and no bother to anyone...
Putting the cats head under the tap is just going to make the cat go nuts and hate your father/try a reconciliation, it wont make him realize he did something to piss you off.
He knew, HE KNEW! Why else would he run so fast if you caught him in the act?
I wouldn't have minded so much, but he would also eat the wax paper around the butter which gave him the worse ever diarrhea…
Counting down the days to Friday night when I can pick up my dog. The house has been so empty with just the two cats; I can't even sleep through the night right now.
streamdragon wrote:Counting down the days to Friday night when I can pick up my dog. The house has been so empty with just the two cats; I can't even sleep through the night right now.
At one point, I let him lick a piece of food that had hot sauce on it. He coughed once and then went to drink for a while, and ever since then, he went to drink a lot of water.
In retrospect it seemed rather cruel, but the little bastard has to learn to not eat human food. We have kitty treats we use instead.
I picked up a "bitter yuck" spray to keep my gerbils from chewing up a particular piece of one of their cages. Then I saw one of them promptly licking it up after spritzing the area in question. I tried it myself, but man it was bad. I guess the gerbil just has odd taste.
Hmmm. At first glance I thought the title read, "A hawk just stole one of my children." All this talk about wire enclosures and whatnot had me scratching my head until I realized my mistake.
Al Queda is giving a reward of camels and chooks for any information leading to President Obama or Hilary Clinton. Just saying if you want more chickens...
JohnnoM wrote:Well we had a snake eat one of our chickens, come back two weeks later, kill a second that was too big for it to eat, so it tried to kill a third and eat that. My dad found it hidden in a tarp, and proceded to shoot it with a speargun, drop a cinderblock on it and set it on fire. It somehow got away, came back 3 weeks later, ate a neighbours chicken, got found by my dad again a couple days later, where it was shot again by a speargun a set alight, yet again. No more snakes since .
I knew our wild life was considered pretty scary but now I'm getting a little nervous. What kind of animal walks away from that only to try again next door?
JohnnoM wrote:Well we had a snake eat one of our chickens, come back two weeks later, kill a second that was too big for it to eat, so it tried to kill a third and eat that. My dad found it hidden in a tarp, and proceded to shoot it with a speargun, drop a cinderblock on it and set it on fire. It somehow got away, came back 3 weeks later, ate a neighbours chicken, got found by my dad again a couple days later, where it was shot again by a speargun a set alight, yet again. No more snakes since .
I knew our wild life was considered pretty scary but now I'm getting a little nervous. What kind of animal walks away from that only to try again next door?
Well, snakes dont really walk, but i'd say a really mean tempered one that is persistent and bent on revenge.
Thought for today; if you are going to kill anything, make sure its dead when you're done.
Once a hawk attacked my parent's pet ducks while I was outside with them, watering the gardens. I just remember a brown blur fly in front of me, and when I turned to see what it was, there was a redtail hawk attacking the male mallard! I chased it off, and quickly put the ducks back in their pen...safe to say they were paranoid the next few days
streamdragon wrote:Counting down the days to Friday night when I can pick up my dog. The house has been so empty with just the two cats; I can't even sleep through the night right now.
Que?
I mentioned the new dog before, the mastiff/great dane mix. I get to take her home on Friday (she's being fostered on a farm in South Carolina, while I live in Maryland; hence the delay). My house doesn't have a dog in it for the first time in decades, so the house feels empty.
pft, what valuables? I play warham- oooooooh. yeah, they live in my closet of shame. (That is, the closet with probably a thousand dollars of unopened models...)
streamdragon wrote:pft, what valuables? I play warham- oooooooh. yeah, they live in my closet of shame. (That is, the closet with probably a thousand dollars of unopened models...)
Where do you live exactly, and what times is your house vacant?
And yes Sol, this thread sums up that birds are indeed, dicks
Soladrin wrote:Mhm, all we get is birds catching carps from our pond, realizing it's to big and letting i suffocate on the grass.
Birds are dicks.
My GF lives about a half mile from the beach. One morning, she found a catfish just laying on her porch. No idea where it came from. I told her it was probably a bird that caught it, but then dropped it when it couldn't carry it.
Piston Honda wrote:I was outside today tending to my Tomato garden and hear one of my chickens go crazy.
I go to see what is going on seeing if my cats are attacking them again. As soon as I get to the chicken coup I see this big brown and gray-ish bird (I assume it is a hawk) flying off with one of my chickens.
Nature sucks.
Third world problems bro. Call me when and Eagle takes your smart phone.
Piston Honda wrote:I was outside today tending to my Tomato garden and hear one of my chickens go crazy.
I go to see what is going on seeing if my cats are attacking them again. As soon as I get to the chicken coup I see this big brown and gray-ish bird (I assume it is a hawk) flying off with one of my chickens.
Nature sucks.
Third world problems bro. Call me when and Eagle takes your smart phone.
Piston Honda wrote:I was outside today tending to my Tomato garden and hear one of my chickens go crazy.
I go to see what is going on seeing if my cats are attacking them again. As soon as I get to the chicken coup I see this big brown and gray-ish bird (I assume it is a hawk) flying off with one of my chickens.
Nature sucks.
Third world problems bro. Call me when and Eagle takes your smart phone.
Piston Honda wrote:I was outside today tending to my Tomato garden and hear one of my chickens go crazy.
I go to see what is going on seeing if my cats are attacking them again. As soon as I get to the chicken coup I see this big brown and gray-ish bird (I assume it is a hawk) flying off with one of my chickens.
Nature sucks.
Third world problems bro. Call me when and Eagle takes your smart phone.
But if the eagle has taken his phone...
If you offer it a dog it will give the phone back. Sandra Bullock taught me that.
Actually talking about this, I had an almost killed Bantam chook by a hawk. We saw a hawk-shadow coming down. The chicken ran into the coop, and next thing we knew, raptor sitting on the fence looking around...
.
