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CarolinaKatie

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Sep 21, 2024
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Hello! New here and curious if this side is related to the Backyard Chickens group on Facebook. New to chickens and o lot have two as family pets. Eggs are just a bonus. We have two hens. We recently lost one to a hawk. We were very naive to aerial predators. We replaced her so our other chicken wouldn’t be alone. Curious about suggestions to deter hawks and owls so they can still free range a little in our yard.
 
Geez, I'm sorry you lost one to a hawk! I don't think this is related to the fb group, but I'm not on fb, so I will have to defer to others. I'm sad to hear about your loss! I don't know what to do besides putting them in a covered run with netting, having livestock guardians might help, I've heard of hanging CDs or getting those crazy tube men:
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but I think the only foolproof method is to keep them in a covered run. 😕
Welcome to BackYard Chickens!

Link to where I stole the pic from
 
Hiya, and welcome to BYC! :frow It is somewhat related to here, as the BYC owner Rob, occasionally posts in that group, about something going on in this group. They are run way differently than here though. I replied to your other post how different. ☺️

We have guy wires from a huge tower that runs over the vast majority of an acre. For the outskirts of that, we have a couple of vehicles parked, and a picnic table that borders a farmer's field. We see the hawks and eagles over the field, but they don't come here as they're scared of our wires and if the chickens go that direction, the rooster sees the hawks and gets the chickens all under the vehicles or picnic table.

We also use small and giant windmill or air spinner type decorations on the opposite side that borders another farmer's field. The tallest one is around 12'. We have a couple of the twirling things too.

I've heard fishing line strung every foot, about a foot over your heads works for over a pen or area. Bird netting I know is cheap as we buy that for our strawberries.
 
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Hello Katie, and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
As the others have stated, the only surefire way to protect from hawks is to keep them in a covered run. However, I keep my flock and a 1/3 acre pen with lots of huge shrubs, a run with a solid roof with the door open and a rooster or two always on the lookout to send up the alarm. In the over six years that I've kept chickens I've only had one loss to a hawk. There have been more strikes than I can count however.
 

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