Keeping hawks out of pn

[JudyJ52]

I have a large run area for my chickens (about 12 x 18 feet) with a corrugated 50 inch metal fence surrounding it. We were thinking about simply do a grid with heavy rope as a ceiling for it and maybe hang cds or something . Opinions on whether this would be good enough protection against hawks. I'm not sure about raccoons and such if they would climb the fence. Thanks

 

[MountainWoman73]

I think that should help. Raccoons can climb a fence, but they should only come around at night, so it's not super important to protect the run against them if you're going to be closing the coop door.

I'm in the "try it and see" camp. I'd go with the rope top and see if any hawks figure out they can get through. It also helps to have something to hide under. My hens can get underneath their coop.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Raccoons can climb anything. Do you think this raccoon could climb your fence?

For hawks, why not stretch bird netting over the top rather than mess with ropes and cds?
https://www.costway.com/anti-bird-n...DEZ0o-iXxIkDc4-45eUedduLpC874PVsaAt0xEALw_wcB
https://www.networldsports.com/industrial-equipment/bird-netting.html

 

[centrarchid]

I used to keep raccoons as free-range pets. They have limits as to what the can climb. Smooth surfaces they cannot hug, fingers / toes around, or find crannies in are not climbable for them.

 

[Mamatomany123]

We dont have to worry about hawks so I'm not sure if this will work but we did the top of our run with bird netting. We originally tried leaving it open but those darn sparrows were devouring our chicken feed. We have a 35x20 run so it definitely saved us a ton than if we used hardware cloth. Our chickens are also locked up at night in their coop that has hardware cloth on any openings for ventilation.

 

[BabasCoop]

We have a 40x12 chicken run on the back of our shop. We have a roof over the coop portion and about 14ft of it we had to enclose because it was open. We used chicken wire. We attached it to the shop on one side, and kept it in one long piece. We rolled it and took it over to the other side and pulled it tight securing it to the fence on the opposite side.
Works great.

We are still in the building process

 

[AmesAcres]

We used netting over our run to keep aerial predators out. Osprey, hawks, etc. Our flock is locked inside their attached coop every night, but I do like the extra peace of mind knowing nothing can get in the run.

So far, so good...

 

[aart]

I have a large run area for my chickens (about 12 x 18 feet) with a corrugated 50 inch metal fence surrounding it.

Is this metal the run wall...or....?

 

[JudyJ52]

Raccoons can climb anything. Do you think this raccoon could climb your fence?

For hawks, why not stretch bird netting over the top rather than mess with ropes and cds?
https://www.costway.com/anti-bird-n...DEZ0o-iXxIkDc4-45eUedduLpC874PVsaAt0xEALw_wcB
https://www.networldsports.com/industrial-equipment/bird-netting.html

I tried the bird netting but it sags too far because there is nothing supporting it in the middle. I will be locking the hens in the coop at night so hopefully the raccoons or any other night critters won't get them. It was just the hawks I was worried about mostly

 

[JudyJ52]

Is this metal the run wall...or....?

yes it is.
The run and coop are in a yard surrounded completely by the solid corrugated metal fence. We put chicken wire all around the bottom too but there are no supports so netting or chicken wire just sags and probably would collapse if a racoon or something got on it. I will be locking the chickens in the coop at night