Everytime we get a new type of chicken breed to add to the yard, we wonder how predator savvy they'll be -- but we learned some valuable tricks while having Silkies. Our Silkies have toodled the backyard free-range for 6 yrs and we get Cooper's Hawks (aka chicken hawks) every Spring well into Summer months. My advice is provide shelter, shelter, shelter, lots of them. We've set up 5 large recycled dog houses around the yard (our chickens use every one of them to hide/snooze in), a couple of makeshift low lean-to shelters, a pop-up canopy over their raised dust-bath bed, a composter, an old wheelbarrow, plants, rose bushes, lawn furniture, table, etc, for the hens to duck under quickly when the hawks land on the fence or in the yard. We've seen the hawks watching less than 5 feet away from a hen that's positioned under a lawn chair or in a doghouse but hawks don't like to scrap for prey on the ground. Hawks prefer in-flight catches of running hens and since a hen doesn't have far to duck under the nearest shelter, we haven't lost one chicken to predators. After 6-1/2 yrs of using these methods as shelters we haven't lost one hen to a predator. I can't speak for rural communities that have different kinds of predators but our method has worked in our yard and especially now with our newly built block-wall fence with added privacy extension across the top of the wall. Still, we get city raccoons and possums snooping around but they hunt at night after the coop is locked up.
We had a stalking Calico Cat stray in the yard and were afraid the 3-month-old Dominiques would be easy to sneak up -- but nope! Doms are more alert to find shelter than our old hens and our adult Cuckoo Breda will chase out unwanted stray cats out of the yard -- which is amazing to me since she is such a timid soul otherwise -- but she finds her brave streak just at the right times.
