A small hawk or falcon looking for lunch

[Granny23]

We have 4 chickens from about 7 weeks to 14 weeks. I covered 25 feet on the side of my house with a shade net for them and I can see them thru a window. We don't let them out into our main backyard unsupervised because they are so small yet. A few days ago Pepper our foundling started hollering and we found this small falcon/ hawk sitting on top of the shade cover. We scared him away...he came back a few minutes later and I sprayed him with water and chased him away.
I immediately bought 3 fake 10 inch tall owls and put them around the yard. The chickens are never out of the enclosed area without our supervision because our yard has no real places to hide yet.
This morning while 4 of us were out watching them this same falcon/ hawk came sailing around the corner of our house and swooped down over Pepper and Rosie the 2 biggest chickens and then landed in the palm next door. My granddaughter grabbed the spray bottle and sprayed towards it and it flew away.
My question is do you think now that its seen the owls it will think twice about coming back...do I need more or bigger owls or do we need to be constantly on alert? What else can we do to protect them? Pepper did his part in alerting!!! His crow is still pretty funny.
Thanks!!!

 

[sourland]

Realistically, the owl decoys will accomplish nothing. The hawk will continue checking to see if it can gain access to your birds.

 

[Granny23]

Seriously?? Does that mean I should keep them in a large enclosed area all the time??

 

[theoldchick]

I have to keep my chickens in a covered run due to hawks. It's the nature of keeping livestock. Predators are waiting to eat what you provide. The hawk just wants a meal so it's up to you to protect your flock. Good luck!

 

[cmom]

My birds all have nice large covered pens. I have lost several birds to hawks in the past. A couple of times I was out with my birds and the hawks swooped in and I didn't have time to react. One time a hawk killed a bird right in front of me. It killed her but didn't take her. Another time I had my chicks in a small pen of which I was standing next to and a hawk swooped in and grabbed a chick and all I could do was watch it fly off with my chick. Both times it happened so fast as I previously mentioned, I didn't have time to react. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

So much for a decoy.

 

[bhawk-23]

Our owl decoy does nothing too, lol

I am searching for cool looking structures to place around our yard for more protection. Turns out the young Silkies are not fast enough to get to the ample cover all around the yard edges. I would love to find some nice ones since they will be right in the middle of the yard. I'm not creative though so no ideas thus far

 

[Granny23]

The little hawk came and landed on the 25 ft shade cover coop I made and we chased him off. A few days later, after I put the 3 owls up, one made a swoop over our yard with 3 of us standing there but we haven't seen him since. Its been about a week.
I have hired a man to build me an 8ft x 4ft coop that will be attached to the 25ft shaded area. Unfortunately with the heat here in So. Calif its taking him longer to build.
My rooster, YES everyone on this page was right! She is a he as much as I didnt want that. No neighbor complaints so far.
Pepper doesn't crow unless he wants out of his enclosure! The 25ft enclosure is pretty boring right now so I can see why he and Rosie like having free run of the backyard. We had our overgrown backyard stripped down to nothing in June and have planted some things and theres some patches of grass. But for the most part its funky dirt and not lots of bugs like there would be if it was all grass like before. No wonder it's boring. Lol.
The other 2 chicks stay more separate but where Pepper can see them. Hes not so mean as he was when they were little. Hes like 12-13 weeks now and they are 5-6 weeks but he still is chasing them and wont include them like he does with Rosie our aracana. The 2 littler ones are hens...a buff Orpington and a rock??...I forget the name.
So now we're just waiting for the new coop to be built.

 

[CluckerFamily]

It may help to plant edible plants in pots for the chickens and rotate them out of the run so that the chickens have other things to eat.
Herbs work good.

 

[McChooky]

Chickens in a coop and run have less stress than chickens being chased by predators . Chickens can live as long as some cats and dogs if they're taken care of properly and make great pets.My dad quit keeping chickens after 40 years when a Hawk killed his pet.I might add that a Hawk will take a chicken out of your arms and aren't afraid of humans.