Protecting chickens from eagles and ravens?

[kimmom]

Any ideas? We have a raven nest in the tree next to our coop and two friends have rececntly lost their chickens to eagles!
We have a large open area run, its about 30 feet by 20 feet, to big to net I think. I was thinking of running fishing line with flagging tape tied every few feet to it but heard that is not legal with fish and wildlife here, in case an eagle gets caught in it.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Ravens are territorial and should reduce predation from hawks and raptors. I would welcome ravens if I were you.

 

[ErieSpurs]

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Crows and Ravens usually scare off birds of prey. Actually when crow hunting, many people use an Owl decoy and they will attack it.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Check out the "Hen Aprons" BYC sponsor. They make chicken saddles with "hawk eyes" sewn onto the backs that apparently help scare off flying predators, plus it's harder for a chicken to be grabbed by talons if they're wearing one of the saddles.

 

[elmo]

Has anyone heard of a raven attacking a chicken? Chicks or eggs, maybe, but a full grown chicken?

 

[95yj]

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i really can't see that, maybe attacking, especialy a small bantam, but not enough to do any real damage. They could if they wanted to, they just have no encouragement. I love having crows around, they chase everything off and cover up the roosters crowing.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I've never heard of a law against running cord/string/fishing line, with flashy stuff like CDs. A lot of people do that. Is this a state law where you are? I'd want to get verification of what the law actually says, just to be sure. If you do find out, could you post it here, so we can know about it?

The whole point of the flashy and moving things is for the raptors to see them and avoid the area. They know something is there. It's not like an invisible trap for them.

Wow! Chicken saddles with eyes! That's pretty ingenious. I wonder how well those work? I wonder if that would help my chickens during hawk migration season, when the trees don't have leaves on them? That's my worst time here.

I was just talking to my husband, trying to remember if I had seen ball caps with a pair of eyes on the back, to keep those horse flies from biting you on the back of the neck. He hadn't seen those, but started talking about head gear in India. Apparently, they have a face mask that covers the back of your head, so tigers don't attack. Tigers like to attack the people from behind.

Oh, well, at least we don't have tigers to worry about, while we are out doing chicken chores.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

You can try Bird netting it is cheap and come in big rolls I use it on the top of mine so far so good.

I agree I would check about the fishing line law have you thought about twine though they would be able to that and the Cd's blinds them for a bit so they can't zero in on the prey so I would hang them or cheap throw away pie pans remember when you were a kid and your mom had a garden and she hung pie pans on sticks that is why it scared off the birds and they couldn't land to eat the veggies well same idea here so I would check into for sure.

 

[mingo]

A few days ago I lost a Bantam and a full-sized adult Buff to a raven. Came home to vultures circling. Later that day found the feathers. Had no idea what had killed them until next day. Heard another Buff screaming. Ran out. Raven had Buff in the bushes ready to start killing. Since then the raven is over our place a dozen times a day waiting to get the others which are in if we are not around. I would never have thought this possible before, but now I know it is true. The chickens are well aware who is doing this and are petrified when they go over. This is a nesting pair from across the road. I hate to think of the terrible death that my chickens faced, especially the full grown Buff. Sort of in a quandary as to what to do.

 

[PoultryPedia]

So very sorry for your losses!

Can you stretch a net over the area where your chickens range to give some extra protection?