I fear hawks attacking my flock more than bears and wild cats. It's simple to rig hot wire to protect from mammal predators, but hawks are unpredictable, and almost impossible to protect against while your chickens are out free-ranging.
I was working in my garden this week when a hawk swooped down and attacked my flock just fifteen feet away. There was mass pandemonium, shrieking, and twenty-four chickens went in that many different directions. I got them all rounded up and back in the covered run and did a head count. I was missing the youngest, a ten-week old chick. I searched everywhere, certain the hawk had flown off with her, but then I discovered she had hidden herself between two straw bales.
Another time, last year, I was letting several of my hens pick bark beetles from wood I was splitting when a hawk swooped down at the chickens just a couple feet from me. That attack was also unsuccessful. But several years ago, I had a red tail hawk kill one of my chickens while she was out of the run.
I don't believe music is any deterrent. Others may know of something, but the only sure thing is a covered run and keeping your flock confined. However, if you like to free-range your flock, and you have large open spaces, you can give your chickens a fighting chance by building a few low ramadas, a couple feet high, for them to shelter under. Chickens will instinctively run for cover if you provide it, and a hawk could be thwarted when chickens run underneath these ramadas. Even with trees and shrubs and these ramadas for cover, there's no absolute way that I know of to keep free-ranging chickens safe from hawks.
