Keeping hawks out

[Stephanie8806]

So sorry for your to loss, even for one chicken.
Hawks usually perform open heart surgery on their prey. I've never heard if them taking the head off.
Fishnets,landscaping fabric works well also.
Watch this.

I’ve had a few friends tell me that they’ve seen hawks take just heads. Just goes to show how diverse behavior can get!

As both attacks were during the day, that pretty much rules out owls. And for about two straight weeks after the hawk attack, I was hearing two hawks sound off out of trees directly over the run and in the first trees outside the run. Never saw one, even when they were in the directly above me. Sneaky birds.

Either way, the new netting has eliminated subsequent attacks thus far. And although our snow has been light lately, there has been no accumulation on this doubled over netting with 5/8” openings. Will update if we get a substantial snow storm

 

[David61]

I have this and will tell you IT IS What you want! Heavy duty, thick, easy too work with , snow rated, lasts for years... Get it and never look back.
Poultry Protection Netting 2" Heavy Knotted Bird Protection Nets (pinnonhatch.com)
Break/Burst 85/245lb per mesh
2 inch mesh
Designed for heavy weather and snow.
Song birds do not get caught in it. Drape it over as critters can't climb it easy if it is lose. Coons hate it. I love this stuff !

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I use aviary netting with 1inch holes because I have small flying ducks. It also comes in 2 inch. It's super strong holds up to snow and lasts for many years you can see the same netting at golf driving ranges. I get my aviary netting here they have some of the best prices I've found. Poultry Netting for Game Birds, Chickens & Aviaries (strombergschickens.com)

 

[3 quails an 2 humans]

I lost my favorite quail to a hawk we are gonna put some hard ware cloth here is my coop setup

 

[Redbud55]

I use netting from pinnon hatch. The netting is infused with uv protection, not just sprayed on. It’s been set up for over three years and I’ve not lost one chicken. It’s draped over poultry netting. It‘s set up like you would a circus tent with conduit holing it up. It’s been very useful! I’m building another coop, and I’m using the netting again. We like in the woods of Tennessee, and everything here wants to eat my chickens. You can buy everything from Pinnon Hatch.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I lost my favorite quail to a hawk we are gonna put some hard ware cloth here is my coop setup View attachment 2451447

Hardware cloth (chicken wire ) works for hawks also. However the galvanized wire only lasts about 4 or 5 years in my area. I use vinyl coated now it costs a little more but lasts 3 times as long. It also looks invisible in comparison. My aviary has the vinyl wire and netting. I also recently added 1/4 inch wire at the bottom buried under ground in the video you can see the galvanized 1/4 inch wire compared to the vinyl coated and netting. Hawk after my ducks again. - YouTube

 

[Redbud55]

I have a huge yard and wire wouldn’t work. I use wire over the run.

 

[Redbud55]

Not a great pic, but it shows the netting.

 

[Iheartbirds]

Hey there all! This week we lost two chickens to a hawk, both decapitated, one in the run and one in the coop through the chickens door. We are sure it was a hawk. Part of our run is going to be able to be completely closed off, but for the rest I’m entertaining several options for the other portion of the run. I’m here to see what actually works and what isn’t worth the time or money.

Our run has 9 foot high fencing, with no roof or barrier over the top apart from the branches of a MASSIVE Douglas fir that cover the open air part of the run(roughly 25’x18’). The tree is the reason we haven’t had hawk trouble until now, I think, as a hawk isn’t able to fly and dive like it normally does. Because of the steep grade of our landscape, heavy winter snowfall, and asymmetrical layout of the run, installing actual fencing or solid roof would be incredibly complicated and cost prohibitive.

We are going to be hanging aviary netting of some sort, but I have also been reading that reflective tape products and owl decoys can have a decent effect on deterring birds of prey. Have you had luck with any of these methods, or any others?

We live in the mountains, the coop is off grid, the coop itself is extremely well built and only needs a change in location of the chicken door to become essentially bear proof. And although not ramshackle, the run is a bit more of a little rustic construct. We do free range our birds and have never had problems. I’m about as “okay” as one can be with the idea that sometimes predation is going to happen, but I’m annoyed that it happened in the run, and simply infuriated that the coop became compromised. Just trying to do my best to keep their home sacred and increase the protection in their fenced run.

I have only 2 pets so their coop is a small wooden tractor coop. For their first 2 years I had the coop under a portable carport canopy, 10' x 20', which I paid about $130 for (new) on ebay. It had 8 poles (some have only 3 on each side) so I put 8 t-posts in the ground next to each post and wired them together for more stability. Using the t-posts, we were able to wrap the bottom half of the entire carport frame with 4' hardware cloth and the top half with chicken wire. (We did have to do some oddball rigging to install a gate). The replaceable canopy lasted a couple of years and our neighborhood hawk family had no access. I've moved and have a different set up now, but if I hadn't done so, I planned to add connecting carports for a "chicken city."

 

[SweetLittleChicks]

Hey there all! This week we lost two chickens to a hawk, both decapitated, one in the run and one in the coop through the chickens door. We are sure it was a hawk. Part of our run is going to be able to be completely closed off, but for the rest I’m entertaining several options for the other portion of the run. I’m here to see what actually works and what isn’t worth the time or money.

Our run has 9 foot high fencing, with no roof or barrier over the top apart from the branches of a MASSIVE Douglas fir that cover the open air part of the run(roughly 25’x18’). The tree is the reason we haven’t had hawk trouble until now, I think, as a hawk isn’t able to fly and dive like it normally does. Because of the steep grade of our landscape, heavy winter snowfall, and asymmetrical layout of the run, installing actual fencing or solid roof would be incredibly complicated and cost prohibitive.

We are going to be hanging aviary netting of some sort, but I have also been reading that reflective tape products and owl decoys can have a decent effect on deterring birds of prey. Have you had luck with any of these methods, or any others?

We live in the mountains, the coop is off grid, the coop itself is extremely well built and only needs a change in location of the chicken door to become essentially bear proof. And although not ramshackle, the run is a bit more of a little rustic construct. We do free range our birds and have never had problems. I’m about as “okay” as one can be with the idea that sometimes predation is going to happen, but I’m annoyed that it happened in the run, and simply infuriated that the coop became compromised. Just trying to do my best to keep their home sacred and increase the protection in their fenced run.

Do you have a rooster if you do not have a rooster egt one the rooster helps protect the hens and please add a roof one ur run make sure u run is big enough also when you have time t supervise them you can let them out