Owls, hawks, foxes… oh my

[Chicken Heel]

My first pen for a larger flock of chickens back in the 1970's did not even have a top on it. I never lost any of them to an aerial predator but there didn't seem to be many hawks in those days either in Western NC. Now the hawks seem as numerous as sparrows in my area in Southside Virginia. I keep my 56 bantams and large breed chickens confined because the hawks are always hanging around.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

I recently moved and restarted my flock, the coop is a metal shed and run is chain link kennel with chicken wire around it, wire 2.5 feet out (buried) and thick, permeable cloth/netting on top. The run is for bad weather days, I like to let them freerange.
I’ve had a hawk squeeze in a small (maybe 1.5 inch) gap between the net and the top. Then a fox, so I added electric netting/fence. Yesterday around 3 am an owl tried to take off with my security camera. They’ve cleared land nearby so competition is fierce.

The hawks being my biggest issue I foresee. CD’s and fake owls haven’t done much to deter less determined hawks in the past, turkeys plot my demise and I have a Pyrenees- bless his heart, that’s not gonna work… what else is there to try?

Unfortunately chicken wire is useless as predator defense. It’s just to keep chickens in. You need hardware cloth. We’ve got every predator imaginable except bears. We have corrugated steel on the coops. We have clear plastic on the run roof. We buried hardware cloth all around two feet out. Plus we put hardware cloth over the screens too.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

I recently moved and restarted my flock, the coop is a metal shed and run is chain link kennel with chicken wire around it, wire 2.5 feet out (buried) and thick, permeable cloth/netting on top. The run is for bad weather days, I like to let them freerange.
I’ve had a hawk squeeze in a small (maybe 1.5 inch) gap between the net and the top. Then a fox, so I added electric netting/fence. Yesterday around 3 am an owl tried to take off with my security camera. They’ve cleared land nearby so competition is fierce.

The hawks being my biggest issue I foresee. CD’s and fake owls haven’t done much to deter less determined hawks in the past, turkeys plot my demise and I have a Pyrenees- bless his heart, that’s not gonna work… what else is there to try?

Unfortunately chicken wire is useless as predator defense. It’s just to keep chickens in. You need hardware cloth. We’ve got every predator imaginable except bears. We have corrugated steel on the coops. We have clear plastic on the run roof. We buried hardware cloth all around two feet out. Plus we put hardware cloth over the screens too.

 

[McChooky]

Unfortunately chicken wire is useless as predator defense. It’s just to keep chickens in. You need hardware cloth. We’ve got every predator imaginable except bears. We have corrugated steel on the coops. We have clear plastic on the run roof. We buried hardware cloth all around two feet out. Plus we put hardware cloth over the screens too.

You have a beautiful coop and run.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

You have a beautiful coop and run.

Thanks!