Hawk Help

[SoccerMomof7]

Okay my baby chicks are still pretty little and still only let out on warm day under 100% supervision. I have 3 pressed board walls up against my well house right out the back door. I mainly put them in their to clean out coop which I do once a week and put new shavings down. Well last night I was finishing up, my daughter was watching the chicks, and my DH came in and told me it was time for the chicks to go back in. Well come to find out their were 2 hawks circling above them. THeir permandent coop and run is not far from where we were, so is hawks going to be a problem? I do not have the financial means to put a top on the run. I was going to do a high fence but hawks that doesn't matter. It's just with 7 kids the coop and run is taking all of my extra $$. ANybody have any advice on this matter would be appreciate it.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

When we get our run finished were planning on putting up plain ol chicken wire over the top. A roll of it is pretty cheap Under 10 bucks. ANd i have also seen where people are stinging up plain ol string in criss cross patterns over the top of the run. some one else may know what this is called. It doesn't stop them completely but makes it awful hard for them to get in.

 

[Flycropper]

How big is the run?

 

[SoccerMomof7]

Well my DH and I are debating about it now, I want it to be good size. I am thinking probley 40'X30'

 

[Flycropper]

With that big of an area to cover overhead you may consider bird netting. I got some at a local nursery but I don't think it is durable enough over time. I found some websites that sell large rolls of bird netting some of it strong enough to keep out sea gulls. If $ is not a huge obstacle you may look into that. I used simple bird netting and doubled it. My run is longer that the bird netting the nursery carried, so I "sewed" two pieces together using zip ties to give me the length to stretch over the top. I attached the netting to the top rail of the run with zip ties and attached the netting to the exterior wall of the coop with a cable. I stretched the cable along the wall and then used zip ties to secure the netting to the cable.

You can see it on the Coops Design thread. I just posted pic there today under the title "First timer's Coop and Run Re-do."