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I suspected that would be your next comment. Sorry that wont do, either.
You can get yourself in hot water simply for molesting them. There is another entire body of regulations for re-habiting them on your own. If you are not,
A. A sanctioned biologist
B. A Government appointed regulator
C. Able to prove livestock deprivation and financial loss or loss of livelihood
... then it is essentially hands off.
There are two ways to go here: Deterrence and Natural Selection.
BUT FIRST: wrap your mind around the notion of 'ranging' - but drop the image of FREE from the picture.
In Deterrence, you put up shiny things to dangle in the wind, toss C/D's on the roof, erect owl balloons, string entrapment wires, cut down nearby trees and perching sites, play AC/DC music loudly... do all the sundry things that entail "deterrence."
It gets quite complex and can have some effect, although it seems generally to be only a partial solution.
In the Natural Selection mode, you take advantage of the chicken itself. They don't like to go far from a ready food source, so you feed and water them on a range site of YOUR choosing. Then you install range shelters within this range area. These can be elaborate structures or just tepees of brush and branches.
When the hawk looms overhead, the chickens run and scatter into the nearest shelter. Hawks won't normaly go sauntering into an enclosed shelter looking for the chicken... they attack on the fly. If they do try to enter the shelters, the chicken squirts out the back and heads for the next one or the bushes. With the hawk on the ground, all it's speed and weight advantage is lost.
These things simulate the jungle environment that chickens are eveloved from and most comfortable in. Sticking chickens out in uncontrolled, wide open spaces is just asking for trouble.
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My sister did both. She used some deterrents and the range shelter method as I have suggested. She claimed it really cut down on BOP deprivation.
We call it the Natural Selection method because those chickens too stupid to take shelter or which are too slow, well.... they get selected by Nature to be the BOP's prey! Eventually, in creating this little microcosm, a balance is truck between the smart, fast chickens and the BOP.
The chickens learn to stick closer to home and can relax a little, knowing there is a safe haven nearby. The hawk learns the chickens are too hard to catch and goes back to it's normal prey of mice and rabbits. It then re-establishes it's terriitory where it belongs.
Predators are generally smart enough to recognize a losing proposition when they see one.
(And when all this fails - SSS, but you didn't hear that from me.)
