I'm all done....(remaining) chickens for sale...

[seagullplayer]

Hang in there Joe, give it a few days before you out and out quite, the sting of your loss will be less and you can think with a clear head.

From what I see in your pictures I would guess that the problem birds may be using your posts for a lanching point? I had a post an owl was using once, I ended up nailing a cheap plastic bowl upside down on it, stopped him from sitting on it...

Fishing line is also a cheap fix to string over the top. You can buy a hundred miles of the cheap stuff at walmart for nothing...

Somebody mentioned making your run smaller, you might give thought to splitting yours into a smaller part for the birds when you are not around, then let them have the full run when your home? I have seen that done with that cheap green or orange plastic Barricade stuff.

Good luck

 

[hsm5grls]

I have a problem with hawks too. I had to completely inclose the run. I used plastc netting over top. It is not as pretty but it works. I hope you hang in there and find the joy in keeping chickens again. I posted a pic of my run so you could get an idea of what the plastic netting is.

i hope you can see it. This is not that good of a pic. But as you can see we have hawks and so far the netting is working well.

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

So hsm5grls & tiffanyh, how many chickens do you have in approximately what size run ?

I used about 130' of fencing to go around the perimeter of my pen...big, I know, but like I said, I wanted to have it be big enough so that the birds wouldn't work the lawn into dirt....

If I make the run smaller how much square footage will I need for a pen for 8-18 birds ? My coop in inside my pen and it is 8'x8'. It is high enough off the ground so that the girls can hide under it.

Here are more pics of my setup:

 

[Arklady]

Joe... somewhere I heard and I am currently investigating it... that there was electrified netting for poultry pens. Now I am not sure about this and I will have to check and see. But you try a search as well, we shall see if we can beat these guys (hawks) heh... Never give up... lol I am way smarter than a dumb hawk.

I know I heard this somewhere and I have been offline for a day or two, I will give you some of my eggs to hatch if you want to replenish your flocks.

In the mean time. You also need to have hidy places in your yard for free ranging. they really need that. Bushes and low shrubs are great. There are ways to protect I even know someone who made a portable freeranging pcv pipe pen they could move alone that the chickens could go in while they were at work.

So keep your chin up and we shall win, bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (uncontrollable maniacal laugh)

Arklady

 

[MTtroutwithwings]

Joe,
It looks like you've got the perfect setup, I'd just replace the red ropes with deer netting. I live very country with a 20 acre marsh behind me, tons of predatory wildlife, Hawks & Bald Eagles! so far so good, no problems. Don't give up!

 

[Miltonchix]

Nice place man! I'd leave the orange string to support the netting. (keep it from drooping)
An' here I thought ya'll up north had nothin' but pavement and high rises.

 

[hencackle]

Joe, don't give up! What a beautiful coop!! If you don't feel that deer netting is stout enough for your situation, you might want to use a heavy-duty netting such as TopRight netting from Cutler Supply. This stuff is heavy as well, that orange string will help keep the netting from sagging.

Don't forget to check Ebay for netting, I've seen some good prices for netting there.

 

[hsm5grls]

You have some lucky chickens. that is a good size run. Very nice set up you have. I would try to just put some netting over the top of some kind and secure it to the coop so there are no gaps. I used a heavy duty staple gun to attach mine to the coop. My run is 11x10 but it is just until they get bigger. They are only 3 mths. old right now. I will be splitting them up into 2 coops and runs when my roo's get here. You could try running 2x4's across the top of your posts and attaching the netting to them for more stability. I will add another side veiw so you can see how I ran my 2x4's. By the way the 2x4's were old, and warped. They were recycled but still work.

I hope you can see what I am talking about with the 2x4's running across the top.
I hope this helps or at least gives you a few ideas

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

That is what I'm thinking I'll have to do....that is...run some 2x4's across the tops of the posts and hang the netting off of that.......

I'll be honest....long term what I'm thinking is if I can get my landscaper or someone with a machine to maybe move my coop to the other side of my house where I can tuck it into the woods.

Quote:

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, I think netting is the key where you are. The spaces between the orange wires are large enough a bird of prey could fly in no problem. Good luck.