Aerial protection idea

[Cluckforluck]

What I did. Bright green fishing line. 23lbs. Red and reflective flash tape at intervals.

 

[lintlicker]

Happy New Year to you all!!

I need your opinion, we are trying to figure out a way to protect the chickens from Hawks. We are thinking about putting up wire, fishing line or string (per the attached drawing), we’ve seen this on some other pages. Do you think the gaps are too big or do you think any of the other lines would help deter them? On the drawing, you can see the dots and points of connection. The fence posts are approx 10’ apart.

EDIT TO ADD: the rectangle in the corner is the coop/run location.

Nothing like a chicken project to start the new year!!

View attachment 4018597

You will want something spaced between 12-16" to protect them best. Aerial predators are not dumb and think about getting in, but also ability to fly out without harming their wings from my research. See my post for info. 25 or 50 lb bright fishing line will work best. Attach it to the top of the wire and run it across, also, if able you can put roofing nails attached onto your coop every 12-16" up high so youll be able to walk underneath easier. Weave it over cross strands going under one then over the next.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...oking-or-curious.1655667/page-2#post-28474305

 

[CabritaChicks]

Around here, we rely on two main strategies:

1. Use rope instead of fishing line:
People often use actual thin rope arranged in a spider web pattern with wide spacing. It doesn’t take much—just enough for the birds to see it as a solid barrier they can’t fly through. When we’ve tried fishing line, it backfires—birds actually try to fly through it and end up tangled. As for netting, it has to be special-ordered and rarely holds up to our weather conditions.

2. Plant trees that deter predatory birds—like palms!
Palm trees are a great natural deterrent. They’re dense, but they don’t have the sturdy landing branches that raptors prefer. So, they avoid them. I actually looked up some palm varieties that grow well in your area—here’s what I found:

Palm Trees That Can Survive In Pennsylvania​

Needle Palm Tree – Zones 5b-11 (- 15 to - 10F)
European Fan Palm Tree – Zones 7b-11 (5 to 10 F)
Pindo Palm Tree – Zones 7b-11 (5 to 10 F)
Sago Palm Tree – Zones 7b-11 (5 to 10 F)
Saw Palmetto Palm Tree – Zones 7a-11 (0 to 5 F)
Windmill Palm Tree – Zones 7b-11 (5 to 10 F)

3. Create extra mini shelters
I created little tiki huts around from sticks and excess palm leaves. It allows breathability, and looks pretty adorable.

4. Put pigeon bird spikes on top of coops and nearby struture landing spots (edges)

 

[RennaeHanson]

I bought bird netting from Amazon, it is 50' wide x 100' long and it works great. I have hawks and owls that live in my pine trees and so far it's worked well.

 

[Coffetym]

Amazon has aviary netting with a good selection of different sizes. My run is 40’x40’. When I was setting it up 3 years ago I purchased a 50x50 net that has 1” spacing on the holes. It was around $60 US. It was however difficult to install because the net tangles extremely easily during installation on any stick, limb or fencing.

 

[EggFarm65]

We just built our coop and run put rope, reflecting tape, and CDs on top of the run. Well, we just lost one of our 7 week old chicken, she just disappeared without a trace, we think the predator attacked from above. So now, we are putting yard netting on top tying up with zip ties. We are planning of putting a proper roof on in a few months.
My poor Maja must have been absolutely frightened.

 

[SegiDream]

I have deer fencing netting over the entire run...tied together with zip ties. rolls come in 7 ft x 100 ft and aren't too expensive

We have crows, cooper hawks, red tailed hawks, black vultures, eagles, and I've heard great horned owls.

Deer netting was one of the first things I tried too. But I found out that hawks will hit the netting, then they flop and roll, the netting will sag under their weight opening the gap between the zip ties and they can fall through. After a few years of the deer netting it breaks easily and is an absolute pain.

So I use rope bird netting now in a similar way like someone else mentioned... with wood posts attached to t-posts and netting over the top of a large swathe of their roaming area. We haven't suffered a hawk attack in quite awhile. They might attempt it but the roosters make 1 small sound and the hens scatter in seconds. One year we had a young cooper hawk that would sit on our fence and ignore the chickens while it hunted voles in the field. Never once bothered the chickens. He would also let us walk very close to him within 10 feet or less.

 

[EggFarm65]

We have crows, cooper hawks, red tailed hawks, black vultures, eagles, and I've heard great horned owls.

Deer netting was one of the first things I tried too. But I found out that hawks will hit the netting, then they flop and roll, the netting will sag under their weight opening the gap between the zip ties and they can fall through. After a few years of the deer netting it breaks easily and is an absolute pain.

So I use rope bird netting now in a similar way like someone else mentioned... with wood posts attached to t-posts and netting over the top of a large swathe of their roaming area. We haven't suffered a hawk attack in quite awhile. They might attempt it but the roosters make 1 small sound and the hens scatter in seconds. One year we had a young cooper hawk that would sit on our fence and ignore the chickens while it hunted voles in the field. Never once bothered the chickens. He would also let us walk very close to him within 10 feet or less.

After a hawk took my 7 week old Maya, we put garden netting on top and used about 300 zip ties. Who ever invented zip ties was a genius. The hawk circled around while we were putting up the netting ; he would have stolen my entire flock.