Chickens traumatized?

[gachroni]

My friend is a professional chicken breeder who lives in the country, in an area with lots of tall trees. She has netting over her chicken runs, but a few years ago a couple of hawks tore right through it. She got rid of them... had fake owls everywhere...

But the thing that worked best for her was buying a cheap stack of blank CDs and hanging them everywhere.

Hawks are very visual. They see EVERYTHING. Every little movement (is it a mouse? A songbird?), every flash and quiver.

The glitter of CDs swaying in any breeze makes hawks so nervous and jittery that they can't stay, and they can't ignore it. They leave.

Thank you! I plan to try that, too.

 

[cmom]

My friend is a professional chicken breeder who lives in the country, in an area with lots of tall trees. She has netting over her chicken runs, but a few years ago a couple of hawks tore right through it. She got rid of them... had fake owls everywhere...

But the thing that worked best for her was buying a cheap stack of blank CDs and hanging them everywhere.

Hawks are very visual. They see EVERYTHING. Every little movement (is it a mouse? A songbird?), every flash and quiver.

The glitter of CDs swaying in any breeze makes hawks so nervous and jittery that they can't stay, and they can't ignore it. They leave.

I breed for exhibition/showing at poultry shows. Not all netting is created equal. I have netting over my pens. I didn't have quite enough to completely cover all of the pens so I bought some on line that turned out to be crappy. I put it up anyway thinking it would deter aerial predators. My DH and a friend built me a couple of coops that are open on one side. I did put tarps over the open sides. I did have an owl go through the crappy netting three times and kill a bird each time and each time I put up another piece of the crappy netting. I moved the birds to another coop and put a camera up. In the meantime I ordered some good heavy duty netting to replace the crappy netting with and no more problems. The owl did come back for another try but got caught in the netting otherwise no other birds have tried. I think it was used to going through the netting and got a surprise. We did manage to get the owl into a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it.

 

[hennanny]

Just had a very similar thing happen a couple of weeks ago and I posted about it..Hawk killed our rooster and injured one of our Hyline Browns. We were able to treat the Hen and we put up a new net over the run but they still wont come out of the coop itself and still huddle in the corner. It is brutally cold here now so no reason for them to be out for now so not too worried about it..we have shotgun next to the door and it goes with us every time we hear something wrong. We put up a similar net to the one pictured above..Amazon 25x50 for $26

 

[gachroni]

So sorry about your rooster - glad the hen is OK! Unfortunately I don't think mine got scared enough by the experience. They have been complaining quite loudly demanding their freedom. The hen that was attacked is fine other than some lost feathers and after keeping them shut in the coop for 3 days I let them out for a little over an hour this afternoon. I was with them or watching them the whole time. Thank you for your net suggestion.

 

[cmom]

This is what I used. SUPER STRONG and DURABLE -Tensile Strength: 85/245 LBS per Mesh. Temperature Range: -10 F to + 150 F. Raw Material: Polyethylene. UV Inhibited – UV protection built into the netting not just surface treatment. This is like the netting I used. I got my original netting from eBay. I lucked into it and put a max bid never expecting to win the bid but I did and it turned out to be great netting. It's been up over 10 years and still good.
https://www.amazon.com/Poultry-Nett...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

[hennanny]

the stuff we got from amazon was like 1/4 inch squares, very light and it snagged on everything. I have my doubts about the durability but time will tell. I also think if it lasts that long the leaves in the Fall will be a giant PIA. I think it was designed for keeping birds out of folk's Blue Berry Bushes.

certainly saving the above link

 

[Brooks_]

One BYC member put a tube man next to her coop.

That mental image is priceless.

 

[cmom]

One BYC member put a tube man next to her coop. Good luck...

That mental image is priceless.

There is a picture on BYC somewhere I tried to find it but so far haven't been able to, but it's on here somewhere.