Hawks! How can I keep the hawks away from my chickens?

[ACchicken]

I had a great year last year. I lost none of my babies to predators. This year has been awful. They figured out where to take food now. I got two batches of chicks this year a total of 25 or so I think. I had foxes snatching them up after I got that under control we had hawks snatching them up. So between the normal random dying, foxes 4 of them drowning and hawks. I'm down to 5 from the first batch and 2 out of 16 from the second batch also they got a duckling.

I've learned my lesson now. Rough year. I'm devastated by the loss but grateful for the 30+ that are still with us. I thought we were safe like last year but unfortunately not. Those predators have it figured out now.

There's nothing like chickies wandering around the yard looking for bugs and worms.

 

[centrarchid]

Choke up on the bat like a sissy by blocking ground predators with electrified poultry netting. Juveniles will be able to free-range somewhat. Keep a fully adult rooster with young inside the netting and that will slow many of your hawks.

 

[Ifish]

A buddy of mine swears he has never had a hawk kill one of his chickens in 15 years. He runs baler twine across the top of his run spread 5 feet apart. Says it works wonders and is cheap. He heard it from an old timer years ago when he was in 4H. Has something to do with the glide path of the predator and them thinking it's a barrier.

Don't think it would work for a hawk perched on the run .

Free ranging it's tough. Having some Shrubs for the chickens to run to or other escape cover is the best bet.

 

[centrarchid]

A buddy of mine swears he has never had a hawk kill one of his chickens in 15 years.  He runs baler twine across the top of his run spread 5 feet apart.  Says it works wonders and is cheap.  He heard it from an old timer years ago when he was in 4H. Has something to do with the glide path of the predator and them thinking it's a barrier.

Don't think it would work for a hawk perched on the run .

Free ranging it's tough.  Having some Shrubs for the chickens to run to or other escape cover is the best bet.

I use same crap to keep herons out of my fish ponds. Takes a lot of work.

 

[Ifish]

I use same crap to keep herons out of my fish ponds. Takes a lot of work.

Fish pond as in farm pond or koi pond?

I can see a farm pond being a lot of work, but a chicken run takes 20 min maybe.

 

[centrarchid]

Fish pond as in farm pond or koi pond?

I can see a farm pond being a lot of work, but a chicken run takes 20 min maybe.

Fish Farm ponds holding bluegill cultured for use as food fish. Ponds range in size from 1/10 to 1/4 acre each. Research size.

 

[grama bailey]

i just lost 2 young muscovy ducks to owls. now i have to put all the chickens and ducks and turkeys and my goose to bed the minute it starts to get dark

 

[esme13]

Just a little insight on the predators. Right now all of them have babies and the babies are now getting bigger and in some areas ready to leave the nest. The parents need more food right now, so chances of a loss is a lot higher with our poultry. It is not the birds fault they are just feeding their families. On that note it is best to have the birds in a cover run, usually once the babies fledged and are no longer in need of food, the hawks and other predators seem to ease on praying.

As for my group, I have been out with them when they roam out their in closure. Our red tail hawk has been coming over our coop every day, before the pair didn't do it. It's just that time of year.

 

[Sylvester017]

A buddy of mine swears he has never had a hawk kill one of his chickens in 15 years. He runs baler twine across the top of his run spread 5 feet apart. Says it works wonders and is cheap. He heard it from an old timer years ago when he was in 4H. Has something to do with the glide path of the predator and them thinking it's a barrier.

Don't think it would work for a hawk perched on the run .

Free ranging it's tough. Having some Shrubs for the chickens to run to or other escape cover is the best bet.

We don't live in a rural area. We are in a subdivision neighborhood with small cottages and yards. 4 years ago we got a group of 3 chickens and within a month realized a 4x6 run was nowhere large enough to coop them all day long and started letting them out for a couple hours a day supervised and covered. By a month later we started giving them more space until they got all the back yard to roam.

However we started building a low plywood shelter mounted on cinderblocks in the backyard. The girls liked to snooze under it midday. Then we added a popup canopy for shade with a little recycled doghouse. They used those too. Then eventually we added more shelters and larger doghouses spaced around the whole yard and planted some bushes (our girls like the climbing rosebush against a fence).

We get Red-tailed Hawks circling high overhead and during Spring the Cooper's Hawk must be raising nestlings in the nearby highway trees because she'll come to sit on our yard fence and even has landed 5 feet from our smart hiding hens. Darnedest thing that Hawks don't like to go after prey that's hiding on the ground - they seem to prefer to swoop from the air as they do over our flying Mourning Doves.

When Crows flock the neighborhood they ward off the Hawks. We don't tempt Crows or Cooper's with chicks, ducklings, or juveniles in the backyard and our older hens are quick to duck into or under the nearest convenient shelter. We have made our backyard too unfriendly for swooping aerial predators that even if they land in the yard won't go after our hiding/sheltered hens (Silkies and Ameraucana). If we add a new pullet to the flock we wait until she is 5 to 6 months old and as large as the flock hens in size so she can learn from the older girls how to head for cover! We get feral/stray cats occasionally and our hens (never had a roo - not zoned) will chase out the cats as one angry bird mob so that the cats don't return again. We get city Raccoons and Oppossums but they've only been around at night after the hens are locked up for the night. We also leave a light on next to the coop and have a solar Predator Night Eyes light on the coop exterior.

Every flock owner has to figure what works best for the predators in their area but leaving chicks, ducklings, or 3-month juveniles outdoors uncovered is bait for Hawks.

 

[critterkeeper25]

We have a couple of hawks that frequently fly over our property, and sometimes actually land on the kids swing set. We have Coopers, Sharp Shinned, Broad Wing hawks and even Eagles. It seems to be the Coopers hawks that are persistant in trying to get to our hens. They swoop down at them and chase them until the hens take cover under something. I have even witnessed a hawk chasing them down, feet first and half side-ways trying to grab them under the ornamental grass.

Right now I have a person sized scarecrow with a plastic pumpkin head with sharp pointy teeth out in the yard. I move it around. So far-so good. I'm not holding my breath that it will work forever. But for now it is. My husband just bought those balloons with the huge predator eyes. We are going to try those.

Our hens aren't small. The smallest are the Dominiques. They seem to focus on them.

Two days ago, I found a 5 ft black racer snake in my nest boxes in my chicken coop. It was peeking over the partition at a BO hen that has gone broody (again..), She was sitting on an egg in the next box over. They were looking at one another, eye to eye. I grabbed the snake and pulled it out. I carried it off. I hope that it will find some mice to eat and forget about the eggs in the coop. But I'm not going kid myself. It'll be much easier to eat eggs than to chase it's meal down. We have no other openings in the coop other than the automatic hen door. I think that it got in the run and gained entrance into the coop when the door opened for the day. Now....how do you keep snakes out of your coop?