hawk netting -- netting part of a yard

[brookwoodpat]

I'm really wanting to let my chicks free range, but I am worried about the red tails. I'd like to net part of my yard so that the chickens are safer. Has anyone done this, and what do you recommend? I have a German Shepherd, and I'm home during the day, so I don't expect to get raccoons, or foxes or neighborhood dogs in the (fenced) yard during the day. What predators mostly worry me is hawks. Right now, I let them out a few hours a day, and I keep an eye out for hawks, and most of the time the chicks stay under the tree cover in a part of the yard I've let the grass overgrow and where the jewelweed is 30-40 feet long and about 2 feet high -- so they have good cover. But I still worry about hawks, because I can see them around and all it would take would be for one chick to stray out from cover, or to be slow getting under cover to get nabbed it the hawk was waiting. Seems to me hawk netting would be a good thing. Why build another pen when the yard is essentially already a pen, it just needs to be safer? (they have a small pen already)