Hawks? How do I protect girls?

[Mychickshatched!]

I live in a very rural area in Oregon, and have always had problems with chicken hawks. Once my buff orps started having chicks, the numbers of chicks would go from 30 to 4 in one day. As you would imagine, I would go out there and bring in all the hens and chickies. They had a covered coop, but just ran around our 63 acre farm during the day. so, I heard about the CD idea, and hung up cds from all the prime kill spots, and pretty much everywhere else. It brought down the problem, but a few chicks a day were still getting nabbed. So, after going from around three roosters, thirty hens and fifty chicks to twenty hens, two roosters, and no chicks, I just gave up and built an eighty by forty foot covered run onto my coop. It is covered, so the problem is no longer a problem. As a last resort, I would just make a covered run. but the cds do work very well.

 

[jerseygirl1]

I use the CD's and I have to say I am hoping it works, I haven't seen any hawks since I put them up, before that I had only seen one, and I chased it away. I do live in big hawk territory

 

[gsim]

My run is only vulnerable from the sky. We have a large resident population of crows, so until yesterday, I never gave it much thought. My wife saw a large chicken hawk land on one of the corner posts of the pen itself and was staring at the birds, all huddled in a corner about 30 ft away staring back at it. We both ran out and he flew off. Seems the crows were not to be seen for the first time ever. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear them chasing off a pred. My chooks are 19 weeks and large for their ages. Still, a chicken hawk can carry away a full grown bird, just as they can a rat or chihuahua.

CD discs, aluminum pie plates, etc strung about is good to stop them from doing a swoop and grab. I am going to buy a roll of polypropylene twine at TSC to criss-cross the pen with. That is supposed to be a good tactic. [BYC does not condone illegal acts--statements removed]
Be advised that they will drop into a pen and walk up to a bird and kill it and eat it there. It has happened before, especially to those who have had chicks outdoors. I would have had netting over my run if mine had been little when they were let into it, but they were around 12 weeks when I let them into the big run. My run is 185 ft around, about 2000 sq ft with the henhouse inside of it.

 

[juliawitt]

This is a pic of all the twine that my husband used. We also hung canning jar lids instead of CD's.

It seems to be working.

 

[Bard Shamrock]

I'll have to try the CD trick. We have a LARGE population of bald eagles around here, and they have been checking out my small group of free-ranging Guineas (3) and chickens (3). Last week I saw a group of NINE bald eagles (including at least 3 adults) flying around...

 

[Wifezilla]

rhoda_bruce, I also use deer netting over a clothes line. Had to put that up after a hawk got 2 of my ducks while I was out of town.

 

[CMV]

CDs don't work. And although fishing line will prevent the swoop and grab technique employed by hawks, it is also really not much of a deterrent either. I just lost a duck last week to a hawk and I thought I had all bases covered. A covered run is the only sure way to discourage hawks. Good luck.

 

[mdbokc]

I have hawks living 700 feet from my girls. We received visits regularly (but no losses) until I set up the CDs. They haven't been back. I set 12' 2x4s by just wiring them to steel T posts and strung the line from post to post, hanging a few CDs along the way. End of problem so far (2 yrs). So the CDs are about 8 feet in the air.

Still have a covered run but the smaller free-range area has the CDs.

 

[gallusdomesticus]

I had a 30x30 foot area outside their coop covered in deer netting but a wind storm caused a branch to fall off a nearby tree and split the seam between two sections of netting. The gap was only about a foot wide but a Cooper's hawk got in and killed one of my black sex links. I've since replaced the netting with steel wire 1"x2" mesh plus I use CD's plus an electric fence and night guard lighting. Probably overkill but I hate losing birds to predators.

 

[CallyB57]

Quote:
Well...I have had a false sense of security using those CD's, then. I have not lost a bird yet, but I feel like I could lose several, as sometimes the hawks are circling around in flocks. Last time I got really upset, there were 13 hawks, Coopers, circling overhead, but they flew off - don't know what caused them to go look for something else to eat. I'm wondering if my 2 big roosters have anything to do with my hens not being carried off...I really worry about my Silkies - they are so small. My worst experience came when I was inside my house and had the blinds raised up in front of two large windows. A red-tailed hawk swooped right down into the pen -BELOW the top of the fenceboards. I bet my neighbors could hear me a mile away when I screamed - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I nearly killed myself getting out the back door and down two flights of decks steps - but when I got to the pen, the hawk was nowhere in sight and I rushed in and counted my birds. No losses. I think I'm going to just try and cover the whole darn pen - it's huge, but it will be worth it!