Hawk deterrent?

[Skkchickens864]

We are currently having trouble with a hawk/hawks. We lost our sweet little sultan chicken to a hawk earlier this week and now I have seen them in the yard every day since. We usually let our girls free range our yard. Have a flock of 6 hens now, a polish, Dominique, welsummer, buff Orpington, Delaware and a barred rock. Since the attack we kept them locked in the run for a few days. We have given them limited free range time and when we’ve spotted the hawk the last two days we get them locked up immediately. Today I heard the blue jays going crazy and then saw the girls were hiding in the bushes so I looked around and found a big one in the tree to the side of the yard. We bought one of this fake owls that the head moves it’s sitting in the middle of the yard. Yesterday and today we launched a firework mortar in the hawks direction. Yesterday it took off today it only flew a few houses down. It’s not reasonable to cover our yard in netting. I’ve scrolled through the forums and seen there isn’t a lot of great ways to deter a hawk but would love to hear any suggestions you all may have.
thank you!

 

[FortCluck]

I use fishing line across my free range fenced in area. I actually just had a bird of prey try to take my Polish today, but it wasn't successful. The fishing line isn't 100% predator proof.

You can also use bird netting a lot of people use that on top of their runs.

I have had birds of prey in my yard twice in the past 3 months. The first time my Jersey Giant roosters chased off a hawk and today I had to go out there and rescue the bird of prey because it could not get out of my fenced in area.

I'm not sure how big your run is, but there are several things that you can do. You could put a roof on your run, you can use birdnetting, you could use fishing line, you can use hardware cloth... It all depends on how big your run is.

Here's my fishing line across part of my run.

 

[Skkchickens864]

We have a small covered run off the coop but usually just let the girls free range the back yard. We have about a half acre in the back. There are lots of trees and bushes so they can hide but also provides good perching for the hawks too

 

[Al Gerhart]

The game chicken guys used to lose a lot of birds from hawks and other protected birds of prey. So this isn't a new problem. But the base problem is that you are offering an unnatural food supply that is attracting the hawks. Not just the chickens, the mice and rats attracted to your coop and the chicken feed. Fix that first and drive the mice and rats off. Past that, the fishing line strung up high in six foot grids might help and you might consider using chicken tractors for a few weeks to force the hawks to find more productive territory.

A lot of the game chicken guys would use strychnine and traps on poles but as they are protected species and valuable to the environment I wouldn't consider either route. You kill them off and the rodents and wild birds population explodes.