Any Battle Strategies for Hawks?

[Phantom_k9]

Good Morning soldiers,
We are at war! Just yesterday we lost a bird to a hawk. We have always had hawks around our place, but they have never been interested in our flock until now. Within the past two weeks, the amount of them has nearly doubled, and two days ago I saw two of them perched in a tree eyeing up our flock.
We do free range our chickens, and we don't want to give up on it just yet. However, I cant just sit idly by as the hawks rip my flock to shreds. Currently, I am planning to keep our flock in their coop and let them out at the end of the day when I can watch them. But I fell like this just isn't the right thing to do.

So im asking for all advise.

I have heard that scarecrows do more harm than good. I have also heard that crows and small birds are excellent ways to keep the raptors away. If that is the case, how can I draw in crows? With this, would a few plastic owls work? I can rotate the decoys every 2-3 days, so that wouldn't be a bad solution. I have also heard that wildlife agencies can help in some way. I only heard this in passing, is there any truth to this and how could they help?

Our flock tends to stay under tree cover or in our bushes, but as we discovered yesterday that simply is not going to cut it. We don't want to switch from free ranging, because we would have to make a whole new add on to our coop, but we love these birds to death and I want to protect them as best as I can. We can't watch over them all the time, and as I have learned attacks will happen when your just not there. I just need some solution that is legal and ethical.

These hawks are putting me in a weird position. With cats, we can trap them and relocate. Raccoons / possums, we can do the same. Snakes, no one will miss them. Every other predator I can think of has some sort of way to prevent them, except for hawks. With every other chicken we have lost to a predator, I have been able to eliminate the problem in one way or another, but i'm clueless as to what to do with hawks.

Thanks in advance for any advice! Over and out.

 

[aart]

Are you on a migration path? Tis the season.

With this, would a few plastic owls work?

Maybe, if you move them around several times a day, otherwise:


Only sure fire way:

 

[Folly's place]

When you have a hawk visitation, your best and only option is to have the chickens in a safe covered run and coop for the two to three weeks it will take for that bird to move on elsewhere. If your coop and run aren't actually large enough for your flock, that's an issue that needs to be fixed!
Posting your approximate location helps here too.
In many states in the USA, it's illegal, and for good reasons, to relocate raccoon, opossums, and foxes. Only trap if you will then shoot them!
Here if we catch a friendly cat, we take it to a cat rescue. Any sick cats who are wild get euthanized, and since our 'kittens every year' neighbor moved away, strays have been few.
For your raptor problem, there are large overhead netting products available, and @cmom has experience with them, as a way to keep them out of large run spaces.
Mary

 

[Phantom_k9]

Are you on a migration path? Tis the season.

Maybe, if you move them around several times a day, otherwise:


Only sure fire way:

Just checked a map of hawk migration paths, and sure enough two major paths converge on out place!

 

[Phantom_k9]

When you have a hawk visitation, your best and only option is to have the chickens in a safe covered run and coop for the two to three weeks it will take for that bird to move on elsewhere. If your coop and run aren't actually large enough for your flock, that's an issue that needs to be fixed!
Posting your approximate location helps here too.
In many states in the USA, it's illegal, and for good reasons, to relocate raccoon, opossums, and foxes. Only trap if you will then shoot them!
Here if we catch a friendly cat, we take it to a cat rescue. Any sick cats who are wild get euthanized, and since our 'kittens every year' neighbor moved away, strays have been few.
For your raptor problem, there are large overhead netting products available, and @cmom has experience with them, as a way to keep them out of large run spaces.
Mary

We built our coop to be a place for our chickens to safely roost and lay egg, the thing is a fort but isn’t as big as a proper coop probably should be. Making an addition wouldn’t be the end of the world, but such a project takes time and funds.

Most of the time, we do shoot raccoons, possums, and snakes. But we don’t want to be known as the neighbors who “shoot all the time”, hence the use of traps. As for cats, I’ll try to start taking them to a cat rescue from now on!

We do live in north Texas. As far as I was aware, there weren’t any laws about relocating possums and raccoons, but it seems I need to do more research!

 

[Folly's place]

I guess your birds can enjoy their covered spaces for a while, and you can enjoy watching that raptor migration! Lemonade out of lemons...
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

There will always be times when the flock needs to be locked in, over raptor visits, other predator visitations, weather...
Free ranging is wonderful for them, but there will be losses, and actually hawks can be the least of it...
Mary

 

[Arete]

I had a hawk circling around and put a couple fake crows with outstretched wings on my coop and funny as it sounds, I haven't seen it since.

 

[Brandy2512]

We bought some of those scare balls from Amazon and I think they have helped. I also plan on getting a cheap battery operated radio to play where they spend most of their free-range time. I also plan on stringing up some old CDs, at the risk of looking like a nut case, lol.

 

[Blkat]

Hawks seek targets of opportunity and, if it's migrating, the threat should pass soon enough. Last autumn we lost our smallest duck when a Cooper's hawk killed her. I know our resident bird population pretty well and had seen a Cooper's that morning, in midair pursuit of a songbird, that I hadn't seen before around our land. Three days later, come a good strong north wind, the hawk had moved on.

Ironically, this last spring I looked out the window one day and saw a Cooper's sitting on a bench watching our ducks. We quickly spooked him off and put the ducks into lockdown. Sure enough, I didn't see him again the next day or henceforth. Not sure if it was the same hawk from autumn, but it made me wonder if he remembered us as a food stop.

Short answer, if it's related to migration, keeping them in their coop for the time being is the best solution. As for any specific defenses, especially if it's a permanent resident, it depends upon what sort of hawk is bothering you since each breed has their own unique M.O.