Cooper Hawk

[animals1981]

owl decoy can work if put in the right spot, a spot where a predator can't tell if its a real owl or not, most people just dont know how to do that. iF a fox or coon, coyote, wolf thinks the owl is real they will pee themselves running.


Thing is owls and eagles just attack large predators in their territory and try to kill smaller predators.


An eagle can and will chase and scare away bears


a single owl can chase off a pack of wolves


owls nest on the ground they see at night they are not scared of any predator, Not even cougars. I can show proof of all this if anyone wants it. An eagle can make a bear crash out of a tree very easy. Even grizzley bear will run from these birds. Thats why people use them as decoy.

http://www.arkive.org/grey-wolf/canis-lupus/video-ar11.html

Notice the chunks of fur the owl is taking out of the wolves?




On top of this both eagles and owls kill every single bird of prey out there, they are the reason for redtail and all hawk nest failures.



here a owl killed and ate a hawk

 

[chicknmania]

Teery, that's way too many CD's for one thing. I think we have like three In various places in trees around the barnyard, one on a stand that we can move anywhere, and one on each door of the barn to try to keep hawks out of the barn. I shouldn't have said to get as many as you can find. We place ours in places where the flock runs for cover.

Great Horned Owls can be a problem, but not for us as our flock is locked in the barn at night. Only saw an owl stalking them one time, at dusk. Owls are pretty wary.

 

[Teery]

Teery, that's way too many CD's for one thing. I think we have like three In various places in trees around the barnyard, one on a stand that we can move anywhere, and one on each door of the barn to try to keep hawks out of the barn. I shouldn't have said to get as many as you can find. We place ours in places where the flock runs for cover.

Great Horned Owls can be a problem, but not for us as our flock is locked in the barn at night. Only saw an owl stalking them one time, at dusk. Owls are pretty wary.

How many CD's for 18 large full sized fruit trees in a 60 x 60 area? You can't see a CD on the opposite side of a tree let alone 60 feet away when they are full of leaves and bearing fruit.

 

[chicknmania]

I don't know how to explain it so it makes sense. you don't necessarily have to see them all, all the time. If you have an area of cover where the chickens seek refuge, where they dust, where they hang out....that's where you want to put the cd mobiles. Or whatever you want to call them. We have a lot of very large hardwood trees, with an understory. So in the growing season, they have plenty of natural cover. But they have areas where they dust or hang out. And sometimes they move to a new area where they hang out. So we move the cd's to where they are. Or, if we do see hawks hanging around, we will move the cd's to where the hawks can't help but see them. And like I said, we've seen the hawks on the fringes of our property...sitting in trees, for example...but they don't come near where the cd's are. At least they haven't since we started leaving them up all the time. We used to just put them up during late summer and fall. Now we leave them up all year long.

 

[chicknmania]

How many CD's for 18 large full sized fruit trees in a 60 x 60 area? You can't see a CD on the opposite side of a tree let alone 60 feet away when they are full of leaves and bearing fruit.

I would use like four or five cd mobiles... for the area you described. I mean I guess. Do the chickens use all that area?

 

[Teery]

I would use like four or five cd mobiles... for the area you described. I mean I guess. Do the chickens use all that area?

The CD's were not affective for me keeping birds out of the tree's. I won't be doing it anymore. The chickens will use most of it as long as I am out there otherwise, they will stay in the covered run. As I stated, if the hawks can't get to them, they can't kill them...The ravens will likely chase the hawks away but why would I chance it?

 

[Chickens R Us]

I want to thank everyone for the ideas. I do have 2 roosters in the run where the attack happened but they are only 5 months old my adult rooster is in another run maybe I could switch out roosters. I do have dogs that get along great with my chickens but I don't want to leave them in the chicken run all day while I'm at work because they like the taste of chicken poop and that can't be good for them to have an over abundance of it all day long.

I went out and bought 1800 yards of mason string and am going to make a web over the run with a tall center support, hopefully that will help. I am also going to put some CDs and wind spinners in there also my coops and runs are behind my house so it will not be an eye sore, besides I'm lucky my nearest neighbor lives a mile away and I live at the end of a dead end road. I hope by using a combination of ideas I will not have anymore losses. I do realize that living way out in gods country that I will have some losses because I do let my adult chickens free range while I'm home but I do want to try to prevent as many as I can. Again Thanx for the ideas.

 

[centrarchid]

Many will attest you do not have live in boonies to have your problems. Rooster needs to be > 8 months to be effective.

 

[animals1981]

yeah that is the nasty thing about dogs eating crap

 

[JoeG]

Hows the Raven population (AKA crows) up there in Valley Center? Around here (nuevo), they chase the Red Tails off. I have a pair of mocking birds that chase the Ravens off..so all is good (in my vegetable garden)..

A friend of mine just moved to Valley Center (5 / 6 months ago). He has major ground squirrel and gopher issues. He is trapping the squirrel's and using Blackhole traps / exhaust for the gophers. I use blackhole and exhaust as well for gopher control. Keeps the native food source down.