What's best way to secure a chicken yard in the country

[hazelville]

I just lost a chicken to a hawk (previous thread - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3298287#p3298287)

So an idea in that thread from CMV and something my wife and I were discussing was using something bright that will bother them like CD's. I was also thinking about having a fake Owl standing over the yard? ANd am contemplating getting a rooster too.
Our yard is pretty big with an apple (non-producing) tree in the middle with Giant Sequoias on 2 sides resting on a hill. We live in a rural area where bob-cats, coyotes, raccoons and the like are prevelent. I have always been concerned and now that we lost one it's time to smarten up an keep my girls safe.

Here's a shot so you can see the size of the yard before the fence.

Here's about half way in the yard

The side so you can see the height where I plan to string stuff from

The nesting boxes
They get locked in the coop every night which is very secure.
I built the coop under a deck so I could run lines down off the deck to the 4' welded wire fence on the other side. Then hang CD's from them and maybe do shade cloth like '3goodeggs' recommended in the other thread. I'm also thinking of getting a rooster too.

So any other ideas are greatly appreciated

 

[tazcat70]

Sounds like you have some great ideas, you just have the "doing" to do.

 

[greathorse]

Get a good dog with that set up you will have no issues. If you have a good dog of course.

 

[hazelville]

I have 2 dogs but they are inside dogs (fox terriers) but eventually we are going to get some 'outside' dogs. So thanks for the idea.

I bought a decoy owl and some bird tape - it's about 2" wide and is silver on one side and red on the other. I have those all around the yard. This weekend I'm goiing to string lines of string and have CD's dangling from them.

The feed store I go to (Lynton Feed) suggested that I get a turkey some geese or ducks to keep the predators away

 

[vstoltzfus]

I had a redtail hawk sitting in the tree above my run. I hung old CD's over the run (strung from post to post) and haven't seen him since. So it worked for me.

 

[mandelyn]

Geese are going to be messy, but Turkeys will help deter predators. No good on the flying kind though, they just won't be the target. The dogs will be good for things that can smell/hear them, but again, not much against the flying kind. I have no faith in anything but a secure wire roof after a hawk came down 5 feet FROM ME to attempt a kill. I was close enough to almost smack it. My run is roofed, this happened during monitored free range over morning coffee with the chickens.

 

[hazelville]

Pretty bold hawk, must have been hungry!

Thanks for the tips on who does what to who.

I really want to try and avoid a roof because it's just more maintenance with all the pine needles I deal with every year.

I feel pretty good at the setup now (I'll take pictures this weekend when done) with the owl, flash tape. And once I do the CD's I will feel pretty good until we lose another.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

As a general rule, if you can stick a pencil through it, you'll have predator problems in the country.

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
eeeewwww- messy chicken - j/k

 

[rhoda_bruce]

When my chickens ran out of grass in their coop and started getting big, we gave them an outside run. Well mostly we stayed outside and watched them and my husband usually had a pistol on his belt ( snake slayer ) so he took out a few low flying chicken hawks, but we decided they needed a canopy, so we put up a 10 ft 4 X 4 about 20 ft from the coop, slanted away from the coop and cemented, crooked like that, and when it dried, we secured a wire clothes line from the top of the coop to it and then draped deer netting. Its secured to the fence with zipties. They are locked up in the coop at night though, but the canopy offers us some protection and I would like to do the same thing on a much larger scale on the goat pen and garden, where they are sometimes allowed to pasture. This was the fastest, easiest, cheapest thing we did for the chickens.