I think I want to cover my entire yard with poultry netting!

[Luv Ducks]

Same here! We survived last year with the birdnet/deernet as yard covering, never had snow/ice problem that caused the net to collapse. With a few tall posts in strategic locations, we can walk in the garden/yard quite comfortably.

Just took the picture - we had 5 inches of snow two days ago. There is a red shoulder hawk nest in the big oak tree between the yard and the shed.

May I please ask what you use to hold your netting up? I have used poles and put milk jugs over them but they eventually fall apart. Thanks

 

[linguini]

May I please ask what you use to hold your netting up? I have used poles and put milk jugs over them but they eventually fall apart. Thanks

Here is our minimalist approach without fancy tools or big muscles!

1. t-post (just tall enough to tie the 2x2x8 post) but put at least 18 inches or more into the ground, we use 7 ft t-post
2. cut a board of plywood, 4"x12" (or just wide enough to hold the net up)
3. nail the board to one end of the 2x2x8 post
4. tie the pole to the t-post (cable ties)

We have the net covered the yard first and then put up the posts to have enough tension.

 

[Lori S]

I live in the high desert of Colorado where aerial predators are constantly present. Anyone have design ideas for protecting about 700sf of yard? I keep imagining a circus tent of camo netting

We have hawks and a few eagles here, plus the usual climbing predators. My three (I rotate the girls through them) runs are no more than 20' wide each, about 30' long. The perimeters are chain link. I cover the runs with bird netting, the kind used to protect fruit. Beneath the netting I run several wires in two directions to support it in the event of freezing rain. Heavy wet snow or freezing rain are nail-biters for me, but so far it has sagged but not torn.

 

[JTHawk]

In Wyoming I had a hawk and an owl sitting side by side checking out the chickens. I stretched clear fishing line across the chicken field, up high, and tied streamers of "bird scare tape" onto the fishing line every few feet. The Mylar tape flutters in the slightest breeze and shoots shards of brilliant light in all directions, and the predatory birds hate it. It disorients them because they can't predict the movement or the light. When I moved the chickens to Colorado I lost four to hawks in two days so I did the same thing---tied the line off my balcony onto tree branches, shepherd's hook plant hangers, anything that would keep the line up high. Within two days even my neighbor said she hadn't seen the hawks at her place. It's also pretty, and cheap. But wind will break the Mylar eventually and you have to replace it.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Here is our minimalist approach without fancy tools or big muscles!

1. t-post (just tall enough to tie the 2x2x8 post) but put at least 18 inches or more into the ground, we use 7 ft t-post
2. cut a board of plywood, 4"x12" (or just wide enough to hold the net up)
3. nail the board to one end of the 2x2x8 post
4. tie the pole to the t-post (cable ties)

We have the net covered the yard first and then put up the posts to have enough tension.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Belsnickle]

fishing line (braided 40lb or thicker) crisscrossed in all directions works for us. Cheap, not affected by wind or snow, and virtually invisible. But birds of prey see it as a trap set for them and not even getting close.

I watched a YT video where the presenter used thin wire crisscrossed and said it was very effective. As for me, my elderly neighbor who likes to watch my birds has been the best protection. He has chased off several feral cats and 1 hawk so far. And he warns me when one escapes the enclosure.

 

[kodster]

Don't know if it was useful, but we did it anyway (reflective bird ribbon). The only problem is that the tapes disintegrate (fell apart, broke) after a few months and I had to pick them up - didn't want our chickens to eat them!

They do look kind of cool, and the most functional part for me is that I can always tell which way the wind is blowing!

Try scratched, unusable CD/DVDs instead of the ribbon. Won't disintegrate, and does the same job.

 

[kodster]

I watched a YT video where the presenter used thin wire crisscrossed and said it was very effective. As for me, my elderly neighbor who likes to watch my birds has been the best protection. He has chased off several feral cats and 1 hawk so far. And he warns me when one escapes the enclosure.

My neighbors do the same thing. In fact, one neighbor (business to the west of my backyard) came to me and said 'I saw your chickens down by the railroad track! I was so tempted to catch them and bring them back!' Railroad tracks are two blocks north of my house, and I told her nope, those aren't mine. She insisted that they were. Found out a day or two later, they were chickens owned by the people that lived just across the road from the railroad tracks and they were out free-ranging. Sure glad she didn't catch them! I would have been upset to see birds I didn't recognize in my flock from where she had caught them and released them into my flock, not knowing the biosecurity dangers, as well as an upset long-distance neighbor who lost his birds!

 

[NoCluckingWay6]

Ok, I see you are in the desert so the obvious suggestion of tall trees and such is not as viable a solution...and it takes time to mature. but....What kinds of bushes and shrubs are native to your climate? My flock moves from cover to cover (my yard-their range) is bordered by berry vines and lavender that they hide under frankly more than the trees. Maybe there is something you can plant or build that gives the same benefit.

That said. My yard is BORDERED in all kinds of wonderful trees and bushes and such...the vast majority is a wide open field. A field constantly patrolled by hawks and falcons thanks to being displaced by construction. It’s also hot and humid where I am so I covered that space in zig-zagging shade sails. This provides cover and shade. I also got my first rooster. He’s young but already he’s calling out hawks and cat sightings and rushing the hens into the barn or under the coop (which is raised) or into a bush. They have to have somewhere to run too so circle back to suggestion 1 above.

I mean the hawk nets aren’t a bad idea IMO, but maybe this sparks some ideas if you don’t actually want to do that

This is awesome, but how come they won’t try to fly past it?