How to deter hawks?

[Yardguy]

The large hawks I've seen in Lower Michigan have maybe a 2 foot wingspan but I've seen one years ago kill a wild rabbit in the field across the road so I've never questioned their capability to kill. Coming home 2 days ago I saw 2 hawks floating on the air currents above the house and was relieved to see our Jack Russell by the wife in the yard. Shortly after arriving home I went to the barn to get the lawn mower and found a lot a chicken feathers in the yard but no blood. We found the bird that was attacked huddled back in the chicken coop (missing a lot of feathers but no real damage) with half our flock and the rest of our chickens hiding under the back house deck and in my pole barn. My question is I've seen chickens gang up and go after mice but would they gang up and run off 2 hawks? I do know the chickens have been confined to the pen since and are not happy about it.

 

[hpierce88]

We have hawks and bald eagles where I live, as we're right on a river. Over the winter, we had a hawk - not sure exactly what it was, haven't been able to identify him in my bird books - stalk my bird feeders. I usually hear him before I see him, and if I pay attention closely enough, I can tell when he's around by the behavior of the little birds. So far, I've seen him take out two sparrows. Messy sort of thing, really, but it's nature, so I don't try to dissuade him. Now, him feeding on my chickens is a whole other matter entirely! Those are family members, and the thought of watching one of "our girls" be decimated before our eyes is nauseating. I also feed "my crows" over the winter (I'm very fond of them) and enjoy a visiting murder of roughly 100-150 crows each morning, and again in the afternoon. We must be on their flight path between their feeding grounds and their rook, because like clockwork, they fly overhead twice a day, popping into the yard to see what goodies I've thrown out for them. They don't visit as often in the warmer months, I'm assuming because food is more readily available? So, I can't count on them to keep the other winged predators away right now. (The crows and wild birds are fed on the complete opposite side of the property from where the chickens are, and the chickens will not have access to that area.)

I have an enclosed run for the chickens during the day while we are at work, but I'd like to let them free range in the fenced-in garden in the afternoons for a few hours each day. My thought is to run some 6-7 foot conduit poles every six to eight feet along the fence line of the garden, and then string something between them in a criss-cross pattern to keep the flying predators at bay, with maybe a few CD's hung here and there for added benefit? Anyone ever have any issues with the chickens catching themselves up on the fishing line by flying up into it? My chicks are less than two weeks old right now, so I can't really say whether they'll be the flighty types or not. I just want to be prepared.

Thanks.
Heather

 

[lucylue1001]

I haven't had any dealings with fishing line, but the CD's don't work for us here in KY. I have hung them from strings, attached them to the tops of the chicken pen/run and have had a hawk or two sitting on the pen just watching the birds. I have bought quite a few out door wind charms and noise making metal things from the local Dollar Store and attached those to the pen. Seems they have worked better for keeping hawks away, not annoying Finches. Since our hawk attack a few months ago, I no longer let them run free unless my husband or myself are outside with the chickens. We make it a point to let them outside and run 5-6 pm until they put themselves up each day, weather permitting!

 

[amanda1]

The crows will go after the Hawks, but we have a lot of crows around here and still had 3 hawk attacks in less than one year. For you hear the crows going crazy cawing, it's a good idea to go out and see what they are upset about. They will run the Hawks from their nest, but not necessarily keep them away from your chickens.

 

[MichaelSnow]

I have a fenced in run with aviary netting over the top and this hawk dove through it and took another one of my girls. I put an owl decoy over them and reattached the netting for now. I'm not sure what else I can do to protect them and this is the 6th one in the past couple of weeks.

 

[amanda1]

Oh, that is awful! What kind of Avairy netting do you have? I was wondering if it would help to have a radio playing a talk station near the chickens during the day. Has anyone tried this? It seems the more human activity around the less predators. I can't believe they are so bold as to fly through the netting!

 

[Tabby2577]

Attract crows. Put a realistic ceramic chicken or two where the real flock isn't.

 

[Schneider0925]

About a year and a half ago a Hawk attack my 12 girls. Luckily I was close enough to save them. Since then I have done some recearch on Hawks and have learned that if they don't have a clear flight path they won't attack for fear of hurting their wings. So I don't have the money to enclose their enclosed for free ranging. So I came up with an alternative solution. I created a spiders web of white string over the enclosure to unclear it's flight path. I also hung some old CD's I had to reflect and scare them away. So far it's worked. In fact it's worked so well that I recently I was out getting their food when I noticed something in 1 of the trees. I thought it was an owl but when I walked closer to it I realized it was a hawk. It was like it was trying to figure out how to get to them but couldn't figure it out and it just flew off. I've seen a few flying over but the never go in for the kill. I hope this helps anyone with a hawk issue.

 

[The Forest Farm]

They usually do not break victims neck and with larger victims to killing process is very unpleasant.

Just chiming in on this discussion since I lost a hen yesterday to a hawk, standing just 30 feet away. It is VERY unpleasant. I heard my girl screaming, but I thought she was running from an amorous rooster. She probably protested for only 5 seconds, but it wasn't instant. I wasn't even sure what had happened. I later saw the biggest hawk I have ever seen flying out of my banana trees, and my smallest white hen was the victim. They are protected here, so I'm ordering netting today for the run, and confining them to chicken tractors in the garden.

 

[Sydnee Fisher]

I had a hawk yesterday and it almost got my hen but a screamed bloody murder...