Hawk Deterrence

[seminolewind]

I will be adding a second layer of deer netting. Can't hurt.

 

[Debbi]

I elected to cover my run in 2"x4" welded wire. Yes, the initial cost is much more than the netting, but it's not going to rot in a few years, and have to be replaced either. I attached it to the frame of the run with aluminum electric fence wire, as zip ties also tend to rot. Also, if you have trees in the run and a branch falls off, it may take down all the netting. Keep in mind too, that the Cooper's Hawk will go after a bird on the ground or in shrubs, that's what they are built to do. I have a pair here that will make a daily swoop over the property looking for a chicken buffet, so I don't release the chickens until after "hawk hour". My cats hang out with the chickens, and even though most of them are smaller than the chooks, they seem to be a deterrant for the hawks. Good luck!

 

[gsim]

Thanks all. I am going the netting route for sure. may even do lighter netting but in 25 ft wide rolls. Just overlap and set a few zip ties where the two pieces would meet around center of run. My run is a bit irregular, but is approx 40x50, so center support is mandatory. Am leaning towards the lighter stuff, but not the super lightweight stuff either. I have to consider the labor to put it up and wrestle it into place. Ugh!

Will use the small 4" zip ties ar a little over a penny apiece online.

Gerry

 

[gsim]

Quote:
I could never do my overhead with 2x4 welded wire. Approx rough size of my run is 40 x 50 irregular.

So lightweight netting even if if only lasts 4-5 yrs is going to have to work for me. Also, Red Tail hawks will land and pursue on foot and kill and eat inside the run. 4 victims has taught me this. They have a wingspan of around 42" . Their heads are the size of a baseball and beaks as big as a man's thumb. Talons are 3/4' long on toes and 1" long on 'thumb'. Yet they weigh around half of a typical layer hen. Lot of killing power in s lightweight package. Am almost thinking that without netting, a roo would not be a bad idea to at least attack and distract the hawks. (some will run away, most will attack) But the netting is the way I am going to go.

Gerry

 

[sparrker]

Hawks must have been hungry for chickens yesterday, my DH came in last night and said I lost another, this one a delaware(we have young children he had to be brief). It was either a coopers hawk or a sharp shinned hawk, it was sitting in the tree, next thing DH noticed something was different about the chickens. The hawk had swooped down in the electric netting and was eating my del. There were some chickens hiding and some still running around like dummies( I have 4 roo's their 17 weeks)he scared off the hawk and put the rest in the coop and locked it for the night. He got the chicken about 5 pm. So today I ran fishing line thru the funce kind off like a cob web. Do you think this will help? Forgot to mention we get ALOT of snow here so the netting over the top won't work in our winters.
Patti

 

[gsim]

Quote:
I think that the fishing line may work if you have enough of it. I would put it up so as to be well short of their wingspan, regarding spacing. They have very keen eyesight and will see it unless it is at twilight. If your run is narrow enough, you could put 2x4 welded wire over the top and maybe support it down the middle with pressure-treated 2x6 on two poles set in dirt of run. My run is way too big for that. Netting is the only answer in my case. Just a matter of finding the right product.

Gerry

 

[TinyBirds]

We use these 50' x 50' nets over every pen:
http://www.amazon.com/Netting-Bird-...AG2M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323469767&sr=8-1
It's much stronger than deer netting and doesn't break so easily. We still have hawks that squeeze through tiny 2" openings along the edge where the net meets the fencing, but I keep trying to zip tie it to get rid of those tiny gaps. One hawk even made it inside one pen that was fully covered AND inside the outer pen that was also overhead netted for extra security. So hawks are a HUGE problem once they discover they like the taste of chicken heads/necks. In an uncovered area, we used to have 35 free-range roosters. The hawks took all of them within 1 month even though we closed them up every night and never lost one other than in the daytime. Hawks suck.

 

[gsim]

Quote:
Wow! You have had hawks squeeze into small openings in the edges of your netting?

I would have thought that they would not enter a place that they cannot possibly fly out of. Have you seen red-tail hawks do that? Only consolation I can see with that is at least the bugger is trapped inside when you show up for egg collection or other chores.

Thanks for the link. Will investigate this. There are three of us and likely I could draft a fourth"volunteer" to help with such a large piece of netting. We were going to order around 200 small zip ties to sew it down around the edges. Figured to lap it down the sides and zip-tie it around 12" down from the top of the fencing (2x4 welded wire). Will support inside here and there via poles set in ground with OSP wooden discs nailed to their tops.

Gerry

 

[TinyBirds]

YES!! The hawks are VERY determined around here. Sometimes we have neighbors call us to let us know there's another hawk inside one of the pens. We have around 8 pens with these type of nets, and we're very happy with the nets. Usually it would take 2 of us to put up the nets, but it's actually very nice how they have them folded in a way that you can start at one corner and zip tie to the top of the fence as you unfold the net. I even did one of them by myself! (not that I would want to do that again) The coops are 7ft high and on blocks, so I guess about 8ft high, and we put the net over the top of that and also attach it similar to a circus tent in the middle by using a rope to gather a section of net and anchor it over one of the tree branches above, with the rope going over a branch and back down to one of the corner posts once the net is pulled as high as we want it. To get the rope over the branch in the first place, we use a rock and tie it to the rope and then throw the rock over the branch, then tie to the netting, then pull on the other end to get the net up high in the middle. It sure makes it easier to walk in the pens without ducking as much. The fence we use is 5ft high so I still have to duck at the entrance gate to get in. My husband devised some ingenious (cheap) gates for the pens by just using boards to make a gate-shape and then a wire cross-brace, with added hinges and a latch.

 

[greenriver]

Quote:
We have been fortunate until today. I had made a quick run for my ten chickens while I complete a larger addition. I covered the narrow run with fence wire, the kind with larger squares high then down to small openings at the bottom.

A hawk got in and killed my best hen. While eating on her, my wife happened to hear the commotion but was unable to keep the hawk from leaving. They are tough birds. But I still cannot believe a hawk would go through that wire and not be able to fly out.

Graphic warning: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/74169_pc120085.jpg

If I would have been home we would have a pic of the hawk.