The only fool proof way to keep a hawk away from your chickens is to enclose the run on all sides with wire fence so they can't get to the chickens. I have a co-worker who today showed me pictures of a red tail hawk INSIDE his coop! He is asking the county for a neusance permit to 'remove' the hawk. I've heard you can hang old CD's on string - that may work - You also need a good rooster - though he may not notice the hawk until too late he will send out the alarm. Hope this helps.
yea my free roaming rooster is the one that spoted the hawk today and wen my peacock spoted the hawk he started to alert everything out ther i only have abou & chickens free roaming and all my others are in the chicken yard and my pecocks are in there own pen
Today my silkies' lives were saved by the netting I had over their run. A hawk dived and bounced off the netting. Just be sure to get heavy duty netting if you have snow and make sure it will bear the load with good supports. I have the cheap stuff and snow will bring it down. Here are a couple of places that sell netting- I haven't ordered from them before. I'm sure there are lots of other places to order from too. http://www.cutlersupply.com/ http://www.randallburkey.com/ Oh and yes, the other poster was right. A determined hawk can break netting- you would be best to get wire overhead if you can do it (like chicken wire or something). One of my runs has the 2" chicken wire on top. But I didn't want to spend the money for the other runs, so I have the cheap stuff there (bird netting).
I have the bird netting but was thinking the high strength DEER netting might be just as good as the wire fencing.I think both might be same in cost. Bird netting is better than nothing,but eventually the hawk will get through it! CDs,fishing line,and T posts can affect the flight of the hawk as it comes down onto the chicken,but again not 100%. Only the enclosed run is a sure bet.Red mylar ribbon is used too.Some fake owls. Encouraging blue jays or other birds that will swarm the hawk.Oh and bottle rockets.
We have a fence that runs along our coop and run that is over grown with wild Blackberries. I mean HUGE thorn bushes. This evening the wife and I were sitting out with the chooks and the 18 week old Lav Orp roo let out a couple of clucks and every one took cover in the thorns. Not 5 seconds later a hawk flew up from the other side of the fence and landed 3 feet from our 11 week old Dels. It flew off when my wife took off after it, bad leg and all. We have been free ranging since late June and this is the first we have seen of a hawk, though I did lose a Del a couple weeks ago to something. (I think it was a cat.) We will continue to free range them, but my shotgun will be loaded and by the back door or at my side if I am outside.
