Keeping hawks out

[Fintechie]

Reading all the above heart-broken stories related to hawk attacks, I truly feel lucky and even blessed. I live next to a preservation. So there are hawks (and other predators) visit often, including a "residence" hawk, often perching on the tree branch right outside my backyard. It made dives now and then, but never really chased down a chicken. Most times, the hawk just sat here watching over. And when I approached toward it, the hawk turned its back on me and continued its sunbathing or win blowing, who knows! I let it be while keeping an eye on it and a broom handy... I'm guessing, maybe it is not hungry at all, within one mile, there is a reservoir with dozens of sitting ducks and a rooftop full of gulls and doves. It doesn't need to chase down a few hens guarded by a roo and me! Oh well, we still lost 1 leghorn to a pair of bobcats.

 

[Chicken❤️er]

Here's another personal experience... I know you're getting a lot of those but I hope it helps. We had a hawk problem in the spring of 2019. We tried decoys and they didn't work, same with CDs, etc. Honestly, the best permanent solution is to build a covered run. I know it takes time, work, and maybe even trial and error, but in the end it is SO worth it. What we do is leave the girls in the covered run while everyone is at school or work, and then let them out to free range in the late afternoon. Hawk (and fox!) attacks happen really fast, so I've learned that I cannot go inside and leave the chickens without supervision, even for a minute. However, I make myself useful by doing my outside chores and projects at that time. I also about every 10 minutes yell "do - whoop!!". I call this my "hawk-call" and it lets them know that there is a human present, if I am not close to the chickens or visible to the hawk.

 

[OddsBodkins]

My son is a falconer, so we have hawks being trained in our yard a lot. Needless to say, we have some experience with their behaviorsTo keep the wild ones, and the crows, ravens, and owls out, we have twine and flagging strung in a grid above our run. Snow falls right through it, and we have several trees around the yard perimeter.

Our coop is elevated and has fencing on the 3 sides that don't open into the chicken yard. We have several pretty fierce roosters who get along very well (surprisingly!) and the flock is locked in the coop at night. We are in a rural, mountain area and so far we have fortunate enough to have not lost any of our chookies to predators. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures-the light was terrible!

 

[LizThumm]

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 live in the country, a lot of hawks. I have old CD’s tied shiny side up all around my run so there is a reflection from the sun at different times of day. I also have a motion detector solar light set on roof of house pointing into run for night time. I have my dog urinate around the run and house. Plus I lock them in at sunset and open door when sun rises. So far so good.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

I'm sure you are overwhelmed with all the awesome tip, tricks and advice. It is going to be somewhat trial and hopefully little error because what may work for some may not work for you. Do the best you can and learn from any mistakes or ideas that didn't work for you. I wish you all the luck with you hawk proofing your girls.

 

[Stephanie8806]

I'm sure you are overwhelmed with all the awesome tip, tricks and advice. It is going to be somewhat trial and hopefully little error because what may work for some may not work for you. Do the best you can and learn from any mistakes or ideas that didn't work for you. I wish you all the luck with you hawk proofing your girls.

Thank you! It’s overwhelming, yes, but encouraging. I enjoy hearing people’s stories, what works for some, and doesn’t for others. It’s like solving a puzzle. Thank you for you input and your well wishes! I genuinely appreciate everyone’s input. I know I’ll find the solution that vest works for us, and I truly hope other people find help here too!

 

[CanadaEh]

just some notes of what worked for me

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.

having security camera (with recorder) might seems to be unneccsesary investment until there is a need to determine who got in and how to make proper adjustments

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.

we don't have hawks, but have auspreys, eagles, and turkey vultures. For them having a (braided 40lb test) fishing line all across the top of the run in different directions have worked. They seem to be able to clearly see it from up high and not trying to dive in feeling entrapment I guess. We have not tried the netting because of suspecting it would become very heavy in wet snow.

Owl decoys don't work for birds eating our strawberries, reflective CDs don;t work for birds or deer either,

 

[ikoCRO]

Hello! Here's how I keep my chicken from hawk

. Cheap net for cucumbers! It works great!

 

[Nija Chick]

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?

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.

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

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 suggest you use pink marking tape, it does wonders to keep the hawks away!
I also use lots of avian netting, as well as living in the woods with lots of tree coverage.
But ALWAYS remember, hawks are much braver than eagles and will most likely be not totally phased by the pink tape, but it's worked pretty good for me!