Keeping hawks out

[chickenchicksc]

Well we aren’t moving the coop, just moving the chicken door to the other side of the coop to where it can be in the portion that we can completely enclose. The coop does get closed and locked at night. It’s very secure. The hawk entered through the chickens access door in the middle of the day to kill the second chicken. Cant exactly close their door all day.

I’m personally not convinced adding hiding spots will help much. Our entire 8x10 coop is elevated, about 24 inches off the ground, and the first chicken was killed under the coop and the hawk drug her out into the run to eat her head.

The netting will certainly be secured well. No worries there. That’s interesting about owls attracting other predators... how does that work? I hear owls and hawks are natural enemies, and I would think things like weasels would avoid birds of prey?

If it just ate her head it’s not a hawk it’s weasel or possums, raccoon, fisher , they will eat just the head

 

[fwyatt]

We have two hawks here that are usually spotted flying every single day and at the first of the summer came out one morning to bring some fresh veggies to my young chickens (teen stage), my roo was out in the fenced area aka 'chicken lot's acting "funny" being still and making a new sound. I was talking to him asking what was wrong. When I got closer & seen what appeared to be a smaller (possible young offspring) hawk jumped down close to my Henry! My heart just about stopped! Henry ran to it and jumped and hit it with both feet! I was running over to them and that hawk jumped to side of chain link fence then flew off. We have a roof over the run and I had put up string all over the 'chicken lot'. I had read and seen videos about hawk proofing your yard. I used what is called "scare tape" reflective tape tied to strings every few feet. Aluminum foil will also work (strips tied or folded around and around sections of string). Tied string from roof of garage to the trees around the fenced area..i had left the areas from the too of fence to the string open so I added more string to connect the fence to the make shift "netting" and haven't had any other incidents (***KNOCK ON WOOD***). I can say I VERY HAPPY my "free chick" from the hatchery turned out to be a rooster!! You can see the string in pics I ran all over the chicken lot. So very sorry about your loss!

 

[Stephanie8806]

Do you have a rooster? My Rooster took on a hawk and kicked his butt. Feathers flying everywhere. Baba rooster last a toenail, but came out on top, and the hawk never came back. I also befriended a murder of crows. I just love saying that. They live in the big madrona right by the co-op, and due to their extreme territoriality, there isn't one flying predator allowed in their airspace. They protect my entire 15 acre farm. So yeah, I feed them juicy scraps, to keep them around. I see them chase off hawks and eagles all the time.

We don’t have a rooster yet. Our girls were chicks purchased from our local farm supply store. This year, however, we will be hatching a dozen eggs from a small private breeder, so I’m really hoping we get one or two!

We have some ravens out by us! We live in a narrow canyon, that’s a part of a series of finger ridges. I think they can hop from gully to fully depending on the day. The hawks are here some days, some days it’s ravens... so I don’t know!

 

[Stephanie8806]

If it just ate her head it’s not a hawk it’s weasel or possums, raccoon, fisher , they will eat just the head

The predator is not a debate. It was a hawk. And the purpose of the thread was to talk about hawk protection/deterrents, so it shouldn’t matter Thanks!

 

[Fintechie]

Do ravens or turkey vultures attack chickens? Now and then I have literally hundreds of ravens gathering at tree tops outside my backyard, and five turkey vultures once ? So far they haven’t showed interest in chickens ( knocking on wood)

I have never saw this many predators around my house in previous three years living in the same house! Something about 2020

 

[Redbud55]

Having ravens is a good thing! They keep the hawks away. They won’t bother your chickens. I’ve never seen vultures go after them either. I wish I had more crows!

 

[Ohchickfarming]

Hey there all! This week we lost two chickens to a hawk, both decapitated, one in the run and one in the coop through the chickens door. We are sure it was a hawk. Part of our run is going to be able to be completely closed off, but for the rest I’m entertaining several options for the other portion of the run. I’m here to see what actually works and what isn’t worth the time or money.

Our run has 9 foot high fencing, with no roof or barrier over the top apart from the branches of a MASSIVE Douglas fir that cover the open air part of the run(roughly 25’x18’). The tree is the reason we haven’t had hawk trouble until now, I think, as a hawk isn’t able to fly and dive like it normally does. Because of the steep grade of our landscape, heavy winter snowfall, and asymmetrical layout of the run, installing actual fencing or solid roof would be incredibly complicated and cost prohibitive.

We are going to be hanging aviary netting of some sort, but I have also been reading that reflective tape products and owl decoys can have a decent effect on deterring birds of prey. Have you had luck with any of these methods, or any others?

We live in the mountains, the coop is off grid, the coop itself is extremely well built and only needs a change in location of the chicken door to become essentially bear proof. And although not ramshackle, the run is a bit more of a little rustic construct. We do free range our birds and have never had problems. I’m about as “okay” as one can be with the idea that sometimes predation is going to happen, but I’m annoyed that it happened in the run, and simply infuriated that the coop became compromised. Just trying to do my best to keep their home sacred and increase the protection in their fenced run.

I used bird netting from Amazon after I lost one of my pullets. Seems to work great. The hawk kept coming back after it tasted the first chicken head! Was never able to get in and it kept the chickens in when the hawk showed up. When we lost ours it had flown out of the run to escape the hawk but in the end thats what got her .

 

[CoopDeVille1986]

Having ravens is a good thing! They keep the hawks away. They won’t bother your chickens. I’ve never seen vultures go after them either. I wish I had more crows!

Squirrels are good too. We have some brave ones that run up the tree barking and messing with the hawks that sit in the tree tops.

 

[Stephanie8806]

Squirrels are good too. We have some brave ones that run up the tree barking and messing with the hawks that sit in the tree tops.

Oh man, Well we have squirrels coming out our ears glad they serve a purpose!

I also looked up hawk migrations, and found that we love right in a major migration corridor in Washington State Explains a lot! But I think the migration should be over, as far as I can tell. Haven’t even heard a hawk in two weeks.

Link to the site that I got the migration map from:
https://www.nhpr.org/post/something-wild-traveling-broad-winged-hawks#stream/0

 

[rosemarythyme]

Oh man, Well we have squirrels coming out our ears glad they serve a purpose!

They're a bit of a double edged sword though. They can also get into your feed like rats do.