HELP I have been hearing hawks!

[dixygirl]

I hear hawks squeeling outside for the last week! I think they've spotted my ducks and baby bantam frizzles
:|
The duck pen's roof is welded wire and the chicken pen's roof is bird netting. The peafowl have a wooden structure with a complete building type roof. I wonder if the hawks will try to dive into the welded wire roof of the duck pen or the bird net of the baby chicken pen. The chick pen has at least 6 baby Austrolorp roosters in there but they are still too little too to gang up and defend their turf at only 5 weeks old.

Help! How can I make the hawks leave and go somewhere else? One already killed one of my parrots a few years ago. I don't want to have to be on guard all day with my birds in their pens.
I have sprayed Repels-All predator repellant all around but I am not sure if that will help against an aerial assault. I have heard of posting shiny toy windmills and reflective CDs all around.

What should I do?


PS I added a sheet metal roof to my duck coop so it looks reflective. Do you think that will help? What about fake owls?

These horrible youtube videos have me more concerned

 

[Heather J]

If your runs have netting you should be safe from hawks IMO, they prefer to scoop and run, rather than to try and tear apart the fencing or netting. There is easier prey elsewhere.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Your roofed pens should be enough to keep your birds safe.

Things you can do to keep the hawks away:

Plastic Owl(get one that moves and then move it from location to location, birds get smart if the plastic owls sit in one spot and never move. Some even make noise. The more realistic the better!)

Attract crows. If you attract crows, they will usually mob and run off raptors. But, the catch is you'll have to deal with the crows noise and trying to eat your eggs and chicks(ducklings, etc).

-Kim

 

[dixygirl]

Thanks y'all. I hope you are all right

 

[Cetawin]

If you have covering over their heads, you should be fine from hawks. Some hawks can be brave and try to find a way through but that is going to be rare.

Hawks see the world very differently from other predators. The hawk flying over sees your chicken for example. He sees only the chicken. He does not see the wire, the house, the fence of your garden, you standing there with a gun, he only sees his target. It will not see the wire and such until it hits it or just before it hits it. That is why hawks so often fly into fences and such. That is also why they do not miss like other birds of prey...they are 100% focused on the meal.

 

[BearSwampChick]

Make sure your netting is very secure. We are using deer netting and had to use three rows of it to cover the run. We didn't lace the rows together very well and a hawk broke through. Luckily, the chickens got into the coop before the hawk could get untangled, but they were huddled into one corner and wouldn't come out the rest of the day. I had CDs on top of the netting and it didn't faze the hawk. However, it hasn't been back after getting caught in the netting, so I guess it was worth it. I haven't even heard it in the area. Not to say that it WON'T come back.

Cetawin is right about the hawks not seeing anything but its prey. The same one almost got my cockeral when my DH was sitting right out there with them. I didn't let them free-range for a while after that, but I'm letting them out again since their nemesis SEEMS to be gone.

Also, don't even think about, ahem, removing the hawks or their nest if you find it. It's a Federal crime, punishable by prison and hefty fines.

Good luck!

 

[dixygirl]

Well i finally spotted this creature making these loud shrieking hawk sounds. It is WHITE or grayish white! Most of my animals are white. And it has a child flying around with it.

So far no casualties. What type of hawk size and hawk sounding creature would be whitish like this? Any ideas?

I just researched and it looks sort of like an albino red tail