Lost 3 hens to a hawk in one afternoon and I still don't get the hype about free-ranging

I let my birds out for 2 hours last Tuesday and a red-tailed hawk dropped in and took out my best layer and two pullets before I even got the back door open, and everyone in my local chicken group acts like free-ranging is the only humane way to keep birds but I'll take my fenced run and predator insurance every time now, has anyone else had a predator wipe out a flock that fast?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_flores171mo ago

... and my buddy across town thought he had things figured out, free-ranging his flock in this big open pasture behind his house. He'd post pictures of them scratching around like it was a magazine spread. Then one Tuesday afternoon a pair of coyotes came through during the middle of the day, not even dawn or dusk. He lost twelve birds in about five minutes, just grabbed what they could and disappeared before he even got his boots on. The screaming from the chickens was the worst part, he said he still hears it when it's quiet. He spent the next weekend building a covered run with heavy gauge wire sunk into the ground, and now he keeps telling me he wishes he had just done that from the start instead of learning the hard way. Have you thought about adding some shade cloth or tall grass inside your run to give them more cover if they need to hide?

michael6931mo ago

The way people talk about free-ranging sometimes makes it sound like the birds are living in some little paradise, but a hawk, fox, or even a stray dog can turn that whole setup into a buffet in about thirty seconds. I had a neighbor lose eight birds to a single Cooper's hawk that came back three days in a row, and after that he built a covered run with hardware cloth and hasn't had a problem since. A good, secure run with some shade and things to scratch around in beats watching your flock get picked off one by one while you're stuck inside.