Is this ok for hawks?

[featherhead007]

NOW THAT"S JUST LOONY!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The trees will give them a nice vantage point while they sit and pick out their favorite color for their next meal.

Hawks are not flesh and feather meteors who swoop down out of the wild blue yonder to pinch your chickens. Chicken hawks are ambush predators and I will bet you that the two hens that you lost to hawks were killed in the pen or run AFTER they were penned against the fence of the coop, pen or run. Lazy has the hawk modus operandi down pat.

The reason that hawks have broad wings is that these wings make it easy for hawks to sit quietly on a limb and wait for a toothsome chicken to wonder to far from cover before the hawk reveals itself.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... But, if you are really determined to have free range birds, there is another way to help lower hawk attacks. If you purchase a great horned owl statue or a couple of crow statues and move them around your yard... it can help prevent hawks...

A little fly paper attached to the head of your Great Horned Owl decoy may help as well.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

I agree, those coops are the best thing to have to combat hawk attacks. But, if you are really determined to have free range birds, there is another way to help lower hawk attacks. If you purchase a great horned owl statue or a couple of crow statues and move them around your yard occasionally, it can help prevent hawks from wanting to eat your chickens. Hawks are scared of crows and large owls.

I always wondered why there weren’t hawks in my area - all the darn crows!

 

[lazy gardener]

I have plenty of crows, and plenty of hawks. The crows sometimes chase the hawks away. But more often, they and the Jays simply sound an alarm.

 

[casportpony]

A little fly paper attached to the head of your Great Horned Owl decoy may help as well.

Love it!

 

[bigz1983]

My Grandpa has a open top chicken run attached to his coop.

Well one morning he was sitting at his kitchen table drinking coffee looking out the kitchen window and he saw a hawk fly into the chicken run.

All the chickens ran into the attached coop but that wasn't enough the hawk went into the little chicken entry door/hole and grabbed a chicken and flew away with it.

Its was a smaller breed chicken golden campine rooster.

 

[NinjaChicken617]

View attachment 1398047 View attachment 1398050

I am in eastern MA, and my coop is also set under a canopy of pine trees. The coop has an attached secure covered run and is surrounded by a larger wire fence. I thought that the trees would be sufficient cover until I had a more permanent solution figured out, but nope. On 7/4/18 a hawk killed my favorite Plymouth rock hen. After that, we purchased some hawk netting. It took a bit to figure out how to suspend it, but we ended up buying 10-foot rebar and pounding them about 3 feet into the ground at the fence corners and a few spots in the middle. We then used black climbing-type rope to construct a web of sorts between all the spikes. We then draped the netting over the web. The net extends down to the top of the wire fence, so now the entire chicken yard is totally enclosed on all sides and from above. We see hawks circling, but none have made an attempt at the girls. Your tree cover is dense enough that you might even be able to suspend the net from the trees, and therefore not need any poles to hold it up. Our setup cost us just about $100 and a few hours to set up and has been worth every penny in peace of mind. It might be difficult to see in the photos, but this is what it all looks like. The net is unobtrusive to humans but super-visible to those nasty hawks.