Need some advice...

redheadedchicky

Chirping
5 Years
Apr 21, 2018
13
14
84
Oak Harbor, WA
I live in a residential neighborhood and we have 4 chicks. I have never seen any hawks around until today when I walked outside just in time to see and hear a bunch crows chasing off a red tail hawk a few houses over. My daughter and our boxer were outside with the chicks, and I never let them out unattended. I have 3 silver metal pinwheels around our coop to deter birds. We have a small urban coop, and had planned on letting the girls free range in the back yard. I have a predator apron round the coop. Now I wonder if I just construct a covered run. Does anyone have any advice on adding on a covered run to one of these pre fabricated small coops? I would think it should be attached, but tall enough for an adult to walk in to be able to secure the chickens into the coop portion. I have seen a few posts on pinterest about a collapsable run. I read that if it is less than 4 feet wide a hawk can not swoop in...any truth to that? Sorry for my rambling... I am just not sure where to start. I am adding a picture of my adorable, but probably not practical coop.
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There's a lot of different ways you could work this, but you are correct in thinking that something should be done.

Red Tail Hawk will carry off a chick. When the pullets are older, they will kill from air and eat on site as the larger hens are too heavy to carry off.

Hawks are so quick you can actually watch them do it helplessly. Having the dog and spinning wheels helps for distraction but not for a determined hawk who will scavenge daily swinging by your place waiting for a day when you and dog are absent.

Think bird netting if you are not needing to worry about ground predators such as raccoons or opossum. Bird netting is light and can be draped. You could simply create a ringed expando fence and drape bird netting like a circus tent over your prefab.

It doesn't look the greatest, but it will deter a hawk strike. 4 to 6 weeks of age is when I seem to lose them to the hawks if they aren't under netting...in a blink of an eye.

My thoughts.
LofMc
 
Ok Thanks! I'll do some research on an expando fence... not sure what that is. I am not even sure if my dog is much of a deterrent anyway. She spends the majority of her time sunbathing and occasionally manages to chase a few starlings away. I've watched a wild bunny hop right past her and she didn't notice.
 
Its an expandable fence or kennel, often termed x-pen. They come in all sizes and prices. Often you can find some construction temporary fencing that works. All you need is something to keep the chickens confined to a specific area that is covered by hawk netting held up by poles and twine or wire, like a circus tent big top.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...vtargid=kwd-2939122461&ref=pd_sl_7vsmbr02yl_e

Good luck keeping the hawks at bay. And hugs to the bunny loving dog.

LofMc
 
Depends on how hungry the hawk is... I had my favorite little bantam chick killed through a covered run - poor little thing always ran up to say hello. I'm still bummed about losing her.
To combat that amazing hawk vision, we put a tarp over the top of the covered run so they would no longer be able to see our chicks from above.
I'm also really happy that we have a family of crows that decided to nest right behind our house. Never thought I would be so grateful for crows.
 
Okay my suggestion would be to build a covered run and free range when you can be out there monitoring them. It's still possible you could lose one when free ranging even when you're out there but there's a much smaller chance. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do.

All birds of prey are protected and I know someone who lives in the city that has had a lot of trouble with hawks(Cooper's hawks I believe were their main attacker). It's hard because other than scaring them away your only option is to lock up the birds.

Personally we live in the country and free range every day weather permitting(unless for instance they're working in our fields). Our chickens go out in all weather except severe winter storms and cold(we kept the flock in winter before last for several days with temps and wind chills -40F).

While we do have bald eagles(beautiful amazing birds as long as they're away from my chickens!) We also have red tailed hawks actually mostly what we have is red tails. While I hear the eagle's cry daily I've never seen them less than a mile or two from our house and that's fine by me. LOL

We did last year have what we think may have been golden eagles visiting our property from time to time(yes some people have said they may have been juvenile bald eagles but these things were huge! Bigger than any bald eagle I've ever seen). Unfortunately I never was able to snap a picture of them but they always put me in the mind of the old Native American tales of the Thunder Birds. One time the pair of these massive birds took off from a huge elm tree we have on our property (trunk is easily 7'+ in diameter I would guess) they shook the entire tree! They would fly low over our yard and sometimes land in our trees.

They made me nervous for our flock but we also keep roosters and they did their job wonderfully. We did keep the flock in for a couple of days when one of the birds flew over my head while I was out in the drive. I think it would have gone for a bird if I wasn't there as the flock was all around me when it showed up. 20-30' above me. I think this thing could almost have picked me up! The wings were so huge! Man I would love to be able to get a really good look at one of those birds(ya know down the road not eating one of my chickens). It was so huge and silent that day it flew over meits shadow and themmy chickens predator calling we're all that alerted me.

The red tails fly over and around and one may have stalked our chickens before once or twice but generally there's plenty to eat around here and hawks seldom give us problems (hope I didn't just start something saying that)

The hawks we've repeatedly had problems with and I've had to scare away multiple times seem to be Northern Goshawks and Cooper's hawks. I've even caught them sitting on my porch railing before didn't get to identify it.

We've never had a confirmed loss to a bird of prey but there are two birds we lost we couldn't rule it out(one of those would have almost certainly been an owl though as he seems to have been taken after dark) We have a large yard light which sometimes confuses the birds on the time of day-its automatic. We believe that particular rooster was probably daudling and was taken.

Anyhow most of the red tails around here don't even look at the chickens but there's also plenty of natural game for them.

As a side note the two birds that may have been grabbed by a bird of prey were both OEGB which are a small but very alert breed and I was amazed we lost them. They're also incredible flier and fast as heck.

My point is you may or may not have problems but you could always do a covered run with monitored free range.

Our flock is large or maybe even very large and we cannot make a run for each of our coops. So only one of our coops has an attached run.

Good luck. I hope all goes well and that my stories etc help you make a decision.

Btw my friend also lives in a residential neighborhood and her hawks are extremely bold.
 
I live in a residential neighborhood and we have 4 chicks. I have never seen any hawks around until today when I walked outside just in time to see and hear a bunch crows chasing off a red tail hawk a few houses over. My daughter and our boxer were outside with the chicks, and I never let them out unattended. I have 3 silver metal pinwheels around our coop to deter birds. We have a small urban coop, and had planned on letting the girls free range in the back yard. I have a predator apron round the coop. Now I wonder if I just construct a covered run. Does anyone have any advice on adding on a covered run to one of these pre fabricated small coops? I would think it should be attached, but tall enough for an adult to walk in to be able to secure the chickens into the coop portion. I have seen a few posts on pinterest about a collapsable run. I read that if it is less than 4 feet wide a hawk can not swoop in...any truth to that? Sorry for my rambling... I am just not sure where to start. I am adding a picture of my adorable, but probably not practical coop.View attachment 1373091
I wouldn't add it to, but rather around...

To press the EZ button, I'd buy a 10x10 Dog pen (craigslist/facebook sellers here delievered mine for $175,) and cover with a tarp or poultry netting or whatever...By utilizing the privacy fence in the background you can double your square footage.

Or, attach to the privacy fence/retaining wall in the background.
 
Thanks for sharing all this great advice. I decided to go with an expandable dog playpen that I can cover with bird netting. I ordered the pen on amazon so while we are waiting for it to arrive I made a make shift run out of left over garden fencing. I tied some twine around the posts and made zip tie rings so that I can slide the net back if needed. It’s not very sturdy at the moment. I’m waiting for my 3 year old “helper” to go to bed so I can make it more secure with out her in the way. I also need to make a ramp so the chickens can get up and down
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