Protection Against Hawks

[myfavoritechicken]

We did a criss-cross web of fishing line. Hawks would hit the line when coming in and fly off empty handed.

 

[GtheCajun]

I currently have a 10' x 30' enclosed run. One side of my run is made from a 4'x 10' section of cattle panel. The holes in the cattle panel are about 5" x 5". I had put chicken wire over the whole panel, except for the top 5" that was left exposed. Two weekends ago was the first week that I moved my flock of 15 pullers, 2 Roos, and 10 guineas to the new coop and run. I came home from work on the next Monday to spot a hawk flying up in the area of the run. I stop in the drive to inspect, and saw that he had killed 2 guinea's, 1 Easter eager, and my favorite Buff Orpington little Roo, Johnny cash. The Guineas were both partially eaten, and had been dead for a while. The Easter eager had part of the head missing. Couldn't find any damage to Johnny Cash except that he was dead, and still warm.
If I had not seen the hawk flying up, I would still be wondering what killed my birds. I never would have thought a hawk would make his way into a 5" x 5" hole in the side of a fence. So, I fix the fence that evening, come home from work the next day to spot the hawk flying up from the run area again. All the chicks were okay, but had taken cover inside the coop. The guineas looked terrified, and four of them had bruising to their head like they had been flying at the fence in panic.
I stay home from work the next two days, hide out, and watch for the hawk. (No, I wasn't going to kill him, just shoot above him

) However, as of yet I still haven't seen that hawk again.

 

[meetthebubus]

That is so sad, I wouldn't think they would get in like that either, they tend to like the hit and run method.

 

[bigz1983]

The roos will signel the hens if they are free ranging and rhey will go hide onder a tree or something and sometimmes they just know and they go onder a tree when they hear a hawk mine do that and if you have a dog like german shepherd they will go after the hawf and scare it away

My Grandpa was sitting at the kitchen window the other day and saw a hawk fly into the chicken coop(The run doesn't have a top) and fly away with one of his chickens. It pecked the top part of his ducks beak off and it died from its injuries.

 

[MrsKris]

We have at least one hawk in our area. That telltale screech just drives me crazy! I didn't take any chances and have all sides, including top and bottom covered in the 2"x4" wire! We live in a pretty rural area, surrounded by woods, so I have to watch out for air and ground threats. We have 2 large dogs, one is a good watch dog who I hope will scare away any hungry critters! So far, so good. I would be devastated if anything got to my babies! A friend, who is my chicken co-conspirator, had a neighbors dogs get into her enclosure and kill her 5 EE chicks. It was so heartbreaking.

 

[Garyzzz]

I have a 40x50 by 6 feet tall chicken pen divided in half creating two pens. I bought a 50x50 poultry netting to go over the top. It was time consuming to put up but the two hawks that were always scoping out my chickens have finally left after one of them tried to fly through the netting.

 

[Provadance]

Hawks will eat any size chicken. Perhaps a tough rooster could avoid being taken, but I've lost several birds to hawks, especially red-tailed hawks. Unfortunately, the red-tails are protected by federal law, although there is no shortage of them in our area!
You have two options that will work that I know of. One is to have protective animals, like a dog. The other is complete coverage of your chicken run with netting, chicken wire, hardware cloth, or some other such barrier. Actually there is a third approach, and that is to have enough birds so losing one occasionally can be tolerated. I've loved to free-range my birds, but I've lost enough to back off on it. Besides hawks, I've lost birds to fisher cats, fox and skunk also. I also had a possum attack a bird but I rescued it in time.

 

[Provadance]

I had a neighbor's dog dig under my chicken yard fence and it had a chicken in its mouth when I caught up with it. So yes, predators are every chicken keeper's problem!

 

[Jack Speese]

Hawks have always been the worst predators to deal with. The only sure way to protect from an aerial attack is a pen with a top. Even if you raise a breed that camouflages, is active and alert, and if you provide protective cover, you will probably still lose birds on occasion to hawks. Unfortunately they are smart. I frankly consider them varmints or even vermin. I've heard folks argue that they've got to eat too, but then so does a mosquito and most people will swat one! You may not be able to raise as many birds in a pen with a top because it is hard and expensive to build a really big one, but to me it's worth the piece of mind. I'd rather have fewer birds and not lose any than to have more and lose some on occasion. I've done it both ways.

 

[Awestruck]

Thanks all, for the help with this. We put up the 'Hawk Stopper' netting over that part of the yard, but unfortunately, it only covers a small part of the yard, leaving much of it uncovered.

We have a rooster now, and maybe that will help. We have a lot of roosters next door, but they crow all the time, so I don't really know if their crows are a warning or just a way of them to communicate with each other.

I have heard people use fishing line and be successful with that. If I could find some nice strong black poles that I could attach this too, that would be helpful.

I have let the birds out cautiously, but it still makes me nervous.

We had a motion detector light go off the other night. I saw a raccoon out there, but I guess it just went away.