Hawk threatening chickens

[cmom]

Make the pen a 30'x13' and cover it with the netting.

 

[cmom]

If you have pictures of your setup, please post them and you will probably get quite a few good recommendations.

 

[slordaz]

not sure where yours are, my chickens have run of the yard here and besides the dogs, the rooster here is what i did put lots of things around the yard: tables,lawn chairs, odd piece of plywood on top of cinder blocks, a rabbit hutch that was given me sits near the farthest side from coop with doors open etc, they have lots of places to run and hide if they can't make the coop for safety that will deter aerial predators. People in your area will know better though as the know the local predators better than I would all the way over here and the mountains

 

[Yolko Ono]

not sure where yours are, my chickens have run of the yard here and besides the dogs, the rooster here is what i did put lots of things around the yard: tables,lawn chairs, odd piece of plywood on top of cinder blocks, a rabbit hutch that was given me sits near the farthest side from coop with doors open etc, they have lots of places to run and hide if they can't make the coop for safety that will deter aerial predators. People in your area will know better though as the know the local predators better than I would all the way over here and the mountains

 

[Yolko Ono]

Central FL. While I love these ladies, I have zero experience. They came with the house and this is what the former owner told me
" I feed them once a day. The food is in this bucket. We let them out when we get home and they out themselves in at night"

Well, I let them out all day but...to what risk?

 

[slordaz]

Central FL. While I love these ladies, I have zero experience. They came with the house and this is what the former owner told me
" I feed them once a day. The food is in this bucket. We let them out when we get home and they out themselves in at night"

Well, I let them out all day but...to what risk?

if you already have a bird of Prey I would really consider a covered run to let them out into, there are so many options but some good designes are in the design forum you'd have to choose one that you think will work for you and your girls but always put down hardware mesh to to keep the diggers out. @cmom should know more about your area as they are from Florida too and a good resource.

On another note you cannot free range without expecting loses you can do a lot of stuff though to help them such as landscaping or placing items at intervals that they can get under for protection from areal predators

 

[cmom]

If you are anywhere near Ocala we have our Farm Swap this Saturday, come on over and say hi...

 

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

You may have to keep them up for a while until the predator moves on. One got my neighbor’s chicken while they were outside with them and they have two roosters. It just came down and snapped its neck. Yesterday she let them out again and the hawk showed up around 10 in the morning and stayed all day. Poor things were trapped under the porch all day. We plan on building a really big run for ours so I don’t feel bad about keeping them safe.

 

[Yolko Ono]

Used to love Hawks.
How they gracefully soared s Ross the sky.

Not feeling as warm and cuddly about then now