The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-06-04
Caught so Hawks in 60 Days.

For 20 years I have been in the
poultry business. My fowls run at
liberty over a farm of 230 acres.
From the beginning Of my poultry
career 1 was greatly annoyed by
chicken hawks. l lost chickens by
the hundreds. My fowls would range
away and be picked up by the hawks.
Of course, I would shoot one occas-
ionally, but this method was slow
and uncertain 1 would possibly lose
a dozen or two chicks before I could
get a chance to kill the hawk, and
when 1 did finally kill it there was
always another one Immediately to
take its place. After losing an unus-
ual number of full grown fowls one
fall two years ago, after l had ex-
hausted every effort to shoot and
poison the hawks, l decided to try
trapping them.
1 had learned quite good deal
about the nature and habit of hawks
by this time, so l began a simple plan
of trapping them that gave me as
tonishing results. Since began my
plan of trapping I have not lost a
single fowl to my knowledge, al
though my fowls roam at will all
over the farm. I find that chicken
hawks are as easily trapped as rats
if one knows how and where to place
the traps. Otherwise a thousand
traps might be set for a>year and not
single hawk caught.
I find that SO times out of 100 a
hawk will fly to the poultry yard and
perch himself upon some fence post,
telephone pole or tree top and select
some certain chicken for his feast.
Now right here is where l catch many
of my hawks. If there is no fence
post for him to perch on, accommo-
date him by putting up few perches
with steel traps on them. If wire
fence is handy 1 need nothing more.
| simply go along to about every
third or fourth post and place trap
OF it, anchoring it to the post by
means of an ordinary fence staple.
But something must be done to
prevent the hawks lighting on
the posts that do not contain traps
To overcome this, difficulty I drive a
80 or 4O-penny spike in the top of
every post not containing trap. l
find a hawk cannot light on a post
with spike driven in the center of
it. The spikes should not be driven
far into the posts-just enough to
hold them in place.
By using these spikes as described
on all posts that do not contain traps,
just a few traps will protect quite a
large poultry yard. To keep my
traps always in place and to keep the
wind from blowing them from the
tops of posts and stakes, drive three
or four small nails around the frame
of the trap. This keeps the trap al
ways in the right position and pre-
vents it turning to one side in case
the hawk does not light squarely up
on it.
When I wish to set traps on an old
stake-and-rider fence I select the
largest stakes for my traps, placing
spikes in all the others.
During the winter months I catch
quite lot of hawks by batting them
with chicken. Every farmer or poul-
tryman loses a fowl occasionally by
some disease. When | lose a fowl
by disease during the winter months
I turn it into cash by catching hawks
from it as bait. take the dead fowl
to the back end of the farm, away
from any house or where anyonelis
working (the quieter the spot the
better), and lay it fiat on the ground
about 20 feet from some fence. Now
I begin pulling feathers and scatter
them all around the dead fowl in a
circle about as large as the big wheel
Of a farm wagon. After l have the
feathers pretty we'll scattered I set
fva steel trans close around the dead
fowl, carefully covering each trap
with feathers When the traps are
all set / anchor them to the fence
with the wire because I have found
from experience that it will not do to
drive a stake near the dead fowl. I