Keeping Away Hawks?

[dogmom]

We lost our beloved Charity last September to a hawk. She had eleven three-week-old chicks, too. The hawk came out of nowhere and took one of the chicks. Charity attacked the hawk and lost her life. We were only about 100 feet away when the murder occurred but there wasn't anything we could do. Charity was gone by time we got to her. Since then we have hung silver-coated CDs all around our property. We have seen the hawk flying overhead (and a couple Bald Eagles) but they keep going. Our neighbors have told us they used to have issues with raccoons but since the CDs have been posted, they only see at the edge of the property. I don't know if this because of the CDs of not. All I know is during a sunny day, the CDs reflect light and they make noise against the fencing.

We also have bells in the trees where the chickens can't get to them and bike streamers on the fence. We are trying everything we can think of to keep predators away from our family.

 

[Sunnyacres nest]

I have seen alot of good ideas.The orange netting you speak of should work well.Just make sure they are all locked up for the nights.Good luck to all.

 

[fadedracer]

According to the Fish and Game commission,( They are the ones who enforce the protection of hawks and owls ), I can not string up wires so they don`t hurt themselves!!!! I spent several hours trying to convince them about the excess number of raptors to no avail!!!!! He said no shooting, no harassing, and no scarring, or else I would be charged with a federal offense. ( A fellony ),I live in the plains state, ( Kansas ) I live on 160 acres, and all of the raptors migrate through here., Kansas. Besides of course taking up residence in the summer, He said all I could do is keep my birds in an enclosed pen. If a hawk gets caught in the wire, I had to release it, or call, and they would remove it. So anyway that is our present laws, and government. I`d like to see a raptor rip their pet apart and say you can't bother it!!!!! What happened to the good old days, when the Government was for you, and not against you. I read somewhere where a giant owl from Europe will feed on smaller raptors, and if you record the sound it makes, it will help lower ones death toll. I have heard the recording of it, but have never tried it. I have used lots and lots of coverage for my 1 Acre chicken yard, but still loose excessive amount of fowl. Oh well, things are sad these days!!!!!

 

[chickmomma03]

Yea, they're federally protected and my state doesn't make exceptions either. It's absurd if you ask me. I don't know that I would try to kill one, I sure thought about it yesterday though as it attempted to swoop down and get my chickens AFTER injuring the neighbor's duck so severely he had to be put down. Trapping and relocating doesn't really help even if 100s of miles are driven because then it just creates a problem for someone else. Plus, if you're like me and have multiple hawks living in the area it's a lot (they perch in my trees and have for years). It's annoying. I used wire and don't give a you know what if they don't like it. I would like to buy some type of netting, but right now I can't.

 

[luckydawn]

This is my first year with chickens and I was horrified one day early this summer to look out and see a hawk perched on the fence of the run. He didn't actually attack but scared the heck out of me.

I wanted a solution that would look nice and allow me still to walk in the run-so covering was out.

I settled on 3 long curtain scarfs, purchased at a garage sale. They are threaded through a peony ring that is

secured in a tree. the other ends are tied with string to the ends of the chicken wire of the run.

I didn't think they would hold for long but they have been up 3+ months with no trouble. They move in the wind and create shelter but I think they are pretty, like the orange flags in central park.....maybe I'll dye them over the winter. I do plan to take them in for the winter.

Haven't seen a hawk.

 

[First-timer]

Not sure what your run is like, but we got an electric fence because we have a lot of wood's around our house, and to keep the hawks out we ran fishing line across the top. It has worked really well! We lost one to a hawk also, but since we installed the fishing we have not lost any more! YA---HOO!!

 

[Frindizzle]

I found a fun way to keep away hawks from my chickens. Feed the crows! Most people don't like crows but I found they are the only birds that chase hawks from their territory. I found that feeding the crows day old bread that they keep coming back for more, then they start nesting near by making our farm their territory! Fun watching a crow pick up one piece of bread then another and another only to drop some when it's beak it too full. It will then carry it to another area to eat it.

We've had two close calls from hawks but the crows came to the rescue! They crows would see a hawk diving toward one of our chickens and two or three of them would bombard the hawk, they take off immediately. When our crows are in the trees on our farm no hawk will come near. It's kind of like the crows patrol our the sky over our farm.

Hope this helps and is successful for you!

Sue
PS: you can also feed the crows table scraps as long as it's away from the chicken feeding areas. Some things are not good for chickens, especially don't want your chickens eating egg or meat scrapes.

Great idea, thanks!

 

[Frindizzle]

My area for the chickens is about 3 acres.

 

[frick01]

I cannot guarantee this as I've been acting as the chickens' rooster, but I also have a plastic owl that I move around the backyard. It's on bird feeder poles, sometimes on rake staffs, and sometimes on the top of a ladder. I was told to move it every three days. I also have lots of hawks. They seem the most active mid-afternoon. My next door neighbor has less trouble because she has two small terriers who bark a lot, and she has lots of cover. The best thing is also to create cover so I'm not cutting down various bushes around the house, and next spring I'll put in sunflowers. I've also put flexible deer mesh above their run. I'd love my chickens out all day, but they generally free range about an hour a day due to the hawk difficulty.

 

[pfields]

We've had 3 hawk attacks on our chickens. Two attacks have been in the afternoon and one mid morning, all 3 survived after much TLC. The last attack came when one of my EE's jumped over the fence. He had her down by the fence under a tree. Thank goodness I heard her cry and was able to rescue her. The rooster was in the coop sounding the alarm but the coop muffled his alarm cry for me to hear in the house.

When we had our BA and GSL roosters we noticed that they're alarm sound was much louder then our BO rooster. He's just 8 months old so hopefully it will get louder. He's not as brave as the other two were but they were mean, really mean roosters.