So, winter's here and everything's finally winding down around our place. We had a fantastic first summer with our girls, 4 beautiful Buff Orpingtons we got as chicks back in late February. They had fun helping dad in the garden, chasing cabbage moths and scratching out earthworms.
Anyway, I wanted to post on here about something I made to deter hawks at our place. We live in northern Colorado, on the plains but not far from the mountains and have a pair of red-tailed hawks who live nearby, also a pair of nesting bald eagles who've been around lately. Our girls free-range all over our property (2 acres with several outbuildings and plenty of fresh green grass), at least when we're home and able to keep an eye on them, when we leave we put them away to keep them safe from predators. After a close call this summer where I heard a commotion in our driveway and looked out the kitchen window to see Sophia and Blanch race across the yard raising a ruckuss and a hawk flapping up after he tried to get one of them, I decided I had to do something because I refuse to lose one of those girls.
I worked a stint this summer a few months at a Ranch store and bought some hideous inflatable yellow balloon with reflective eyes that supposedly works to ward off hawks and other birds of prey (blank stare).... (crickets). Anyway I decided I'd rather have a tacky yellow balloon hanging in our yard than having our chickens killed. It seemed to do the trick, the hawks who usually hang out on telephone poles near our place seemed to disappear and I rarely heard them calling from nearby properties. The problem with the balloon was the wind we have here, which we get a lot of, and a lot of times gusts up to 70 mph, more than once I could be seen running across the neighbors field chasing that thing. I decided I would take the reflective eye aspect of the balloon and make something that would hang more permanently from the eve of our barn. I went to Michaels and got a cardboard cone, about 14 inches tall and maybe 5 inches wide at the base (I would suggest getting something more permanent and weather resistant but I was experimenting and will use better supplies when I have to replace the one I have), a few bags of those small 1" mirror tiles, and some construction adhesive from Lowe's. Came home and basically tiled those little mirrors all over that cone then hung it like a windchime so it could spin in the wind. It works like a charm. I haven't seen one hawk since, now I'm not guaranteeing this will definitely work but it seems to work for us. I watch the girls closer when it's cloudy but when the sun shines you can see reflections all over our property, and what's great is the angle of the cone angles straight up into the sky and spins around casting reflections all over.
I'll have to take a photo of it when I get a chance, it's nothing aesthetically pleasing but better than the ginormous yellow eye balloon, I plan on making a few more before next summer and putting them on other corners of the property. Hope this idea might help someone else. It's worth a try.
Anyway, I wanted to post on here about something I made to deter hawks at our place. We live in northern Colorado, on the plains but not far from the mountains and have a pair of red-tailed hawks who live nearby, also a pair of nesting bald eagles who've been around lately. Our girls free-range all over our property (2 acres with several outbuildings and plenty of fresh green grass), at least when we're home and able to keep an eye on them, when we leave we put them away to keep them safe from predators. After a close call this summer where I heard a commotion in our driveway and looked out the kitchen window to see Sophia and Blanch race across the yard raising a ruckuss and a hawk flapping up after he tried to get one of them, I decided I had to do something because I refuse to lose one of those girls.
I worked a stint this summer a few months at a Ranch store and bought some hideous inflatable yellow balloon with reflective eyes that supposedly works to ward off hawks and other birds of prey (blank stare).... (crickets). Anyway I decided I'd rather have a tacky yellow balloon hanging in our yard than having our chickens killed. It seemed to do the trick, the hawks who usually hang out on telephone poles near our place seemed to disappear and I rarely heard them calling from nearby properties. The problem with the balloon was the wind we have here, which we get a lot of, and a lot of times gusts up to 70 mph, more than once I could be seen running across the neighbors field chasing that thing. I decided I would take the reflective eye aspect of the balloon and make something that would hang more permanently from the eve of our barn. I went to Michaels and got a cardboard cone, about 14 inches tall and maybe 5 inches wide at the base (I would suggest getting something more permanent and weather resistant but I was experimenting and will use better supplies when I have to replace the one I have), a few bags of those small 1" mirror tiles, and some construction adhesive from Lowe's. Came home and basically tiled those little mirrors all over that cone then hung it like a windchime so it could spin in the wind. It works like a charm. I haven't seen one hawk since, now I'm not guaranteeing this will definitely work but it seems to work for us. I watch the girls closer when it's cloudy but when the sun shines you can see reflections all over our property, and what's great is the angle of the cone angles straight up into the sky and spins around casting reflections all over.
I'll have to take a photo of it when I get a chance, it's nothing aesthetically pleasing but better than the ginormous yellow eye balloon, I plan on making a few more before next summer and putting them on other corners of the property. Hope this idea might help someone else. It's worth a try.
