Hawks and how to stop them!

[plunk72]

Red tails were tearing my guineas up. Lost three in three days.

 

[Eeyore donkey]

I don't know if this *really* works against hawks, but I haven't lost a hen yet to hawks -- and I see them ALL the time -- so maybe it does. A friend of a friend told me she uses the "grid wire system" to keep hawks from swooping down on her chickens.

What I did was buy some cheap, 4-foot (70 cents each) wooden stakes and pound them into the ground at intervals, maybe 10-20 feet apart. Then I strung ribbon (or string, or gardening tape) from post to post, so there is criss-crossing string all over the chickens' yard. Then I hung strips of bird tape along the string.

(You can google "gridwire system to repel birds" to see how professionals do it; mine was much cheaper and more haphazard.)

You can kind of see it from this photo below. (I ran out of string, so I used all different kinds of ribbon and plant tape near the end.) It took me one afternoon to put this up after work and it requires zero carpentry skills, beyond hammering the wooden stakes into the ground. I would say that the cost of materials was $30 total. I put this up all over the yard, not just in the area pictured.

I don't know how well this would work against a really determined hawk, but so far I haven't lost any of my 50+ hens, and I see hawks all the time. It would be better if the stakes were 6 feet high so I didn't have to crouch down to walk through the area, but that would also make them harder to pound into the ground.

The theory is that the hawks' wingspan is too wide to navigate the criss-crossing string, and the flashing streamers of bird tape make the hawks think it's fire from above.

 

[aart]

I saw slow motion video of a hawk flying full speed thru an opening about 6" x 6".
Might not apply to a 'hole' in a horizontal 'surface' like a string grid tho.

 

[buttercup95]

I have cats maybe this is something you should consider? My cats weren't even raise with the chickens and they've never bothered them. I've never had to worry about hawks and we have red tails all over out here. That's just in my case though so it might not be that easy for you and my cats are excellent hunters they've brought me a few sparrows and virtually eradicated any vermin problems I had.

 

[junecleavage]

I used to have a hawk that visited my yard everyday. At that particular time, I had a coop with a run that my chickens were in most of the time. The run, however, did not have any type of cover. In the 6 years I was there, that hawk never touched my chickens. It would rid my yard of snakes, mice, voles.... It would even sit on the posts of our run, but never touched a chicken. I always just told myself they were just too big for the hawk to mess with. Unfortunately, I think I just had an amazing hawk there. Now that I have moved to SC, I find the hawks are not so helpful. My chickens free range all day every day here, and I have been good about going out each time I here the hawks calling. Yesterday, though, I was not as diligent since my girls are getting to be too big to carry off. I happened to go out to give them fresh water and there was a hawk on one of my girls. I scared it off. It tried to carry of my little girl but it couldn't do it. She is tore up pretty bad, but seems to want to live.

When the hawk left her, we thought she was dead. When we looked closer we saw her breathing but she wasn't moving. My husband went to grab the corn knife to put her out of her misery, but as soon as he got back and went to grab her she popped up and ran. It was like she played dead to keep the hawk from finding her again, but as soon as another type of death came her way she was out of there. With that much will to live, I couldn't put her down. Still not sure she will make it, and I hate the thought that she is in pain. We'll see how today goes.

Someone asked about will they learn. I'm not sure, but I know the rest of my girls went straight for cover. A few made it into the coop and huddled together in a laying box. The others all took cover in the bushes. Some hid so well I had a hard time finding them. They stayed hidden until quite a while later. When I let them out this morning I told each and everyone to hide if they heard the hawk.

Wow that was a whole lot of story.

 

[aart]

Great Story tho.

 

[farmgirlroots]

I had this issues as well so what we had to do is build off of their current covered run and make a way larger area and cover it. We purchased deer block netting 7'x100' and it was like $20 a rolls. we covered the entire are where they are now "free range". You can also buy fowl netting from amazon which is basically the same thing. 

I've been wondering about this netting too. I'm not entirely familiar with how hawks hunt but I know I have seen them circling overhead (prior to my new adventure with my hens). Today I made a temporary fence covered by deer/bird netting (secured with zip ties), like what we toss over our berry bushes to save the berries, around a garden bed I want them to till for me. Then I started worrying about the hawks. I'm out here in the garden mostly when they will be in it and this is aside from their coop and run they are in when we leave and at night. Here is a pic, tell me what you think.

 

[quigley257]

If your run isn't 100% fenced/netted in, pretty much any hawk that wants a chicken dinner will have one. I don't know of any effective deterrents that will "keep away" a hungry hawk as they are not at all phased by visual distractions(decoys, tape, string, cd's etc). Some video to consider...

 

[chickortreat]

So if a suspicious-looking individual were seen casing your house, would you run buy four extra deadbolts for every door, install an extra alarm system, add more outdoor lighting....or would you see to it that he moved along? I refuse to let hawks hang around. That way I don't have to worry about it. It doesn't take much to discourage them, at least around here. I think they're beautiful creatures, and I admire their regality, but I didn't raise my chickens to feed them. They have plenty of pickings elsewhere.

 

[buttercup95]

So if a suspicious-looking individual were seen casing your house, would you run buy four extra deadbolts for every door, install an extra alarm system, add more outdoor lighting....or would you see to it that he moved along? I refuse to let hawks hang around. That way I don't have to worry about it. It doesn't take much to discourage them, at least around here. I think they're beautiful creatures, and I admire their regality, but I didn't raise my chickens to feed them. They have plenty of pickings elsewhere.

I think that's one way to go but not everyone lives on an area where they can shoot the hawks down. lol