Near Miss with a Hawk! What now?

[rehsanipoor]

Our girls get to free range in our backyard every day. There is always a person/guard out in the yard with them (their run is covered). We don't have a dog or rooster. Yesterday on of our more independent girls who tends to wander was in a different area of the yard and a hawk (possibly cooper/red tail) swooped down but thankfully missed her. My son who was out with them said he thinks he may have been standing where the hawk couldn't see him. We shooed everyone in for the day, but the next day there was a low flying hawk over our yard again (there were multiple people in the yard) and no attack attempt was made.

What should I do now? It's not possible to put up netting or wire in our yard. Is it safe for them to be out as long as someone is out with them (we can make an effort to be sure we are more visible). Are there effective deterrents we can use (I've read wind chimes, cd's, scare crows...). Do any work?

Thanks.

 

[azygous]

A human or facsimile (scare crow) may scare off crows but hawks aren't fooled. Nor are hawks deterred by a human standing around. I've had hawks dive bomb chickens standing right at my feet. Once a hawk discovers you have chickens, expect the hawk to return until they deem it useless to keep trying.

The thing that has brought my own hawk problem under control was when I began to get serious about controlling my rodent problem. I have kept all kinds of rodent traps set up, catching mice and pack rats regularly. I dispose of the dead rodents in the same spot behind the coop and run, and the local crows and ravens have become accustomed to checking regularly for these offerings. Now these birds have set up residence and whenever a hawk happens to visit, they chase it off.

This beauty landed in a pine next to my coop and run recently, and within a couple of minutes a raven landed in an adjacent pine. The two glared at each other, and the hawk mulled it over and decided to leave, never to return.

 

[Captain13]

Azygous is right about the hawks not being afraid of humans. I only free range my chickens when I can be with them due to hawks and foxes. This morning, a hawk landed in a tree about 50 feet from where I was standing. i fired a 4.10 shotgun round into the air and he left but only flew out about 100 feet to a pine tree. I gathered up the girls and put them in the run. The hawks had no concern about me being there but he didn’t like the shotgun noise.