Hawks :(

[MLWoods]

We have ALOT of hawks around here where I live...I free range all day and have been for several months. I have not lost a chicken yet. I know there are great risks taken to let them range. My chickens LOVE being out and free doing what chickens do....I love to watch them range and be free....if I penned them up I don't believe they would be very happy. Do you have a rooster? I don't believe my rooster would provide complete safety, however he does seem to be more intellegent than the hens and sounds the alarm and the hens hide. He always keeps a watchful eye out for hawks. For me it is about the quality of life not the quantity. If something happens I will have to accept it as part of raising chickens. You can only do so much and then let nature take it's course. Sounds like you have done what you can to provide safety. I am sorry for your loss...it is not your fault it is the nature of raising and keeping livestock low on the food chain.

They have a pretty big space to goof around in. If you saw the pictures, they also have the space to the side and behind the garage. As you can tell, my neighbors are close, no roosters in the city! I feel so guilty leaving them in the coop. It is a great coop, but like you said, not where they want to be. Supervised outdoor time was great, about 15 degrees ago. Its getting too cold and windy for that now. I sort of thought that I would just accept the risks so the chicks can be happy, until the risk landed in my backyard.

 

[gg706]

I read here on BYC someone strung a large run with fishing line to deter hawks.

 

[MLWoods]

That is on the to-do list for this blustery evning!

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Please ignore the leaves...my husband has!

 

[kian]

I have a Great Pyrenees, the only one on the planet that would rather "eat" his charges rather than guard them. However my husband said the dog did chase "something big" off of the wall the other day. But yeah, he's a chaser (cats, chickens).

I am so sorry for all the losses.

 

[2eggheads]

Sorry to say I too just came in after coming home to a big hawk eating my favorite. She was my biggest and best layer as well as sweetest personality (can you tell we bonded?). Needless to say just like so many others in this thread, she will be missed. My 4 others were so devastated they all let me pick them up and put them in the coop while I attempted to sho away the hawk who wasn't giving up her meal. I finally got her to fly away after I called my dogs, I think it was the loud yelling. I too have a large deer fenced yard around our coop and we let them out to free range it in the late afternoon. I think my only option is the aviary fencing. I love raptors and don't want to kill them, just protect my gals. We have a large area and it gets rather windy. If anyone has tried this by now, I'd be interested to know how it's going?

BTW: I am sure my gals are upset, one of them is making a low repetitive moan sound, she won't stop. The others are very quiet. Do chickens mourn? I think so...

 

[KnobbyOaks]

BTW: I am sure my gals are upset, one of them is making a low repetitive moan sound, she won't stop. The others are very quiet. Do chickens mourn? I think so...

Oh, I'm so sorry. That's sad. I need to check out the aviary netting too before mine get old enough to get out of the coop. Let us know how the hen is doing.

And welcome to BYC.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

I had a Falcon kill two of my chickens once too!

Good luck!

 

[2eggheads]

Thank you, I will let you all know how it goes.

 

[MLWoods]

@ 2eggheads:
That is terrible! Mourning chickens, that is really sad. Like you, I dont really want to harm a hawk, but I did add a pellet gun to play a little offense. It is cold and blustery here tonight, but my husband was able to get a good start on stringing strong fishing line from the garage sides to the fence, but not enough where they can be out alone again. It sounds like we have similar spaces for our chicks to roam. I'll let you know how the line works. We will probably dangle CDs from the line to try and trick the hawk(s), i read that in a couple of books. We bought The avian netting for a good price in eBay awhile back. It was a company selling it, not an individual, so I would bet they have it often. Good luck