Paranoid and anxiety filled after hawk attack (I'm talking about ME!!)

[chickmomma18]

I'm trying to convince my husband to put the yellow electric fencing cross crossed on the top of the run roof which would be a little extra work-trying to get it up that high without it touching anything but I think it would be well worth it now and in the long run...

 

[Pyro01]

I'd reconsider running the electric fence, there's hefty penalties if a hawk were to die from such a thing. All hawks are protected under the migratory bird act, I feel you'd be playing with fire on that one. Hawks can get entangled in stuff like that and due to their anatomy it can be hard to let go of some stuff, throw electricity in that mix and you could end up with a hawk stuck on the fence constantly getting electrocuted. Have you tried putting out a great horned owl decoy? Owls are a primary hawk killer, and it could help deter the hawks.

 

[chickmomma18]

Hmm. I haven't thought of any bird doing anything but flying away after being zapped but I definitely am aware Hawks are protected. Good point. I'm going out today to buy some string....
Owls- I have 5 of them. They didn't stop them

 

[kculbert]

Hmm. I haven't thought of any bird doing anything but flying away after being zapped but I definitely am aware Hawks are protected. Good point. I'm going out today to buy some string....
Owls- I have 5 of them. They didn't stop them

I completely understand the anxiety and paranoia.

Houston is a migratory hot spot and with our sub-tropical climate, hawks are a problem all year long. When we went out of town I added lawn chairs draped with sheets, ladders, boards and sun shades to the string. Anything that the chickens could hide underneath went out there. We planted some grapes and the vines have completely taken over the run and surrounding area. We have been letting our dogs out with the chickens recently, which scares me too but keeps the hawks away. I'm not ashamed to tell you that every time I go outside, I look like a fool moving my arms around to make sure they hawks know I am there. Our juvenile hawks and their parents seemed to have moved on for now so I have removed the obstacle course and most of the string. Just keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck to you. I hope you find something that works for you so you can enjoy your chickens in peace.

 

[chickmomma18]

@kculbert
Thanks!!! My husband says "you may need therapy" lol. I said "I think I just need to keep doing different things, and everything I can to prevent anything else from happening."
See, we started this in May. We had 13 beautiful girls & our coop burnt down to the ground with all 13 in the coop. I was totally devastated. This happened end of July. They were so sweet and we hadn't finished the run roof then either and we had no problems at all with hawks...
We got these girls that night and decided to rebuild. Then a few died early which might have been more intense because of the fire, recent loss and the fact that I'm new to this. One of our girls just stopped walking before she died so we took her to the poultry lab to find out why, here she was born with a crooked spine and cause of death was her birth defect. Then, the day of the hawks-we thought they only got 3 and injured 1 but once I inspected the injured one thoroughly, I realized her little liver was hanging outside of her body so we took her to the emergency room. We had to put her down & what was weird about that is she actually seemed perfectly fine. You would have never known she had an organ outside her body...

So it's been a month and a half of hard core learning....

Great idea about the chairs and places to hide. Let me get some pics of what I did

 

[chickmomma18]

Hide a way cages

 

[chickmomma18]

Put these in every corner

 

[chickmomma18]

Added an additional tarp this am

 

[chickmomma18]

Put a bunch of CD's all over the run roof. Some dangling for movement. Some steady.
& I also moved the owls around this morning too.

 

[chickmomma18]

Daisy. She's 9 weeks and the biggest of them all. Lol