Lost another Buff....back to the drawing board.... :(

[JoeOxfordCT]

Hi All,

After going a couple months without losing any birds last night's headcount came up one short. I had the birds locked up in the pen during the day while I was at work. I then lock them in the coop when I get home after dark. This morning when I went out to let them back out this was all I found:

Apparently the gridwork of mason's line I ran back in early December is still not enough to deter predatory birds.

So now I'm left with having to buy nylon netting to cover my entire pen ??
I'm so broke from the holidays......

Thankfully, of the two Buffs I have left one is a Roo.
Will a full grown Roo go after an attacking hawk ???

My Roo can't mature fast enough...

 

[SpottedCrow]

Darn...definitely a bird of prey got your buff baby...so sorry.

 

[Chickemee]

I'm so sorrry for your loss. Right now my rooster is in rehab (he has a respitory infection) and there is a hawk in my yard but i'm not sure if he could fight him off.

 

[speckledhen]

At the very least, you need to hang CDs or pie pans from the line to bounce, swing, twirl and reflect. I do that and I've never had a hawk dive into my pens. Doesn't look all that wonderful, but it usually works. The line alone won't do as well. Sorry about your bird.

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

Quote:
I'll be honest, the most signifcant difference I see between my setup and yours is that your coop/pen seems to be in a more wooded environment. Mine is nearly wide open in my yard....

I have a link somewhere to a company that sells netting in widths of 25'-50' and more.....I can cover most of my pen with that. If I had to I suppose I could get someone with a machine to pick up and move my coop over to the other side of my yard where I have some woods......(sigh)

 

[arlee453]

For a cheap solution you might want to try deer netting. That stuff is surprisingly strong, and may at least give your birds time to get into the coop if something does manage to get through. It is a LOOOTTT cheaper than any poultry netting I've found online.

It comes in 7' widths, but you can easily use cable ties to join it together. Heck at the price of the stuff, you can do a double layer to be twice as strong.

It is $15 a roll or less at Lowe's. A roll is 7ft by 100ft. You find it in the landscape area where they have the weed block, etc. It's not with the fencing supplies.

Here's a pic of my run, covered with the netting. My run is between a wooded area and my backyard, and we definately have birds of prey in the area and I haven't had any problems thus far...

 

[JoeOxfordCT]

$15 ????

They're $50 a roll at our Home Depot !!!
I've worked with the stuff. It is very strong.
I guess that could be one solution....



Quote:

 

[buzzard chick]

Arlee, Where did you get the metal bars that curve over your pen? I use the netting too because of hawks but I have to walk around hunched over. I would like to do somethin similar to what you have . It would help alot. Good Idea!

 

[okiechick57]

So Sorry about your loss Joe, I use the bird net also with great sucess ! GEE you could have it shipped to you and still beat that price locally.......

 

[speckledhen]

Joe, I agree that I have a more wooded area, but not in the winter. Netting is a better solution till the snow comes and weighs it down. I also agree, the deer netting is very strong and here it's pretty cheap.