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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.

An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.

The gods took an offering. Ask for something.

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.

Coolyo294 wrote:An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.

An eagle can carry off a dachshund?

Pretty easily, especially something big like a Bald Eagle or Golden Eagle.

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...

Piston Honda wrote:

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.

They eloped. The chicken will be back but you will never see the hawk again to pay child support.

You must track that hawk down and steal one of its chicks in retribution or you will be a hawk - enabler. Fight Back!

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.

Orlanth wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.

An eagle can carry off a dachshund?

It could grip it by the collar!

Slarg232 wrote:

Orlanth wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.

An eagle can carry off a dachshund?

It could grip it by the collar!

Spoiler:

European or African Eagle?

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'.

Raptors are incredible animals.

Orlanth wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:An eagle almost ate my dachshund once.

An eagle can carry off a dachshund?

I was also thinking of

I have heard ranchers in Northern California tell stories about eagles taking newborn calves in the spring just as they are born.

Radiation wrote:I have heard ranchers in Northern California tell stories about eagles taking newborn calves in the spring just as they are born.

The harvest needs offerings, like Britney Spears.

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.

Orlanth wrote:

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.

At this point you get automated anti-aircraft turrets around your house and chicken coop...

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

See, if you were a DCM, we would have a thread for this moment. That sucks man, next time, carry a shotgun?

KingCracker wrote:See, if you were a DCM, we would have a thread for this moment. That sucks man, next time, carry a shotgun?

Amazingly I was unarmed at the time. I have since rectified this laxness on my part.

KingCracker wrote:See, if you were a DCM, we would have a thread for this moment. That sucks man, next time, carry a shotgun?

Exactly.

The more spikes that are on the armour the less likely it is to be carried off somewhere.