Red tail hawks are toying with me and terrorizing my flock!

[Folly's place]

When we have a hawk visitation, we keep the flock in their safe coop and run for at least ten to fourteen days (once for three weeks) until those raptors move on elsewhere. Easy!
No running around screaming, no death threats, no more dead chickens, and no illegal activity on our part.
It's great to be able to free range the chickens, but there are times when it just can't happen, and this is one of those times.
Good livestock management!
Mary

 

[DaWookie]

This is probably the unpopular opinion here, but...

If you love your animals so much, why not build them predator-proof enclosures and don't let them out? It is so incredibly frustrating to me to hear/read about people wanting to kill predators for taking livestock that is essentially thrown out to them. The Earth is not yours and yours alone - One should try to find a way to cohabitate with the creatures who share our land. I wish more people had compassion and respect.

No you have a great point, in a perfect world we all have predator proof grazing areas. In reality that is quite expensive to do for any sizable space. The alternative being keeping the chickens in smaller spaces that are easier to secure, which diminishes quality of life for the birds.
Both chicken and predator have a right to exist, however you as a chicken keeper have a responsibility to protect your birds. For most people that translates to predator removal instead of a costly coop/run upgrade.

 

[bobbi-j]

No you have a great point, in a perfect world we all have predator proof grazing areas. In reality that is quite expensive to do for any sizable space. The alternative being keeping the chickens in smaller spaces that are easier to secure, which diminishes quality of life for the birds.
Both chicken and predator have a right to exist, however you as a chicken keeper have a responsibility to protect your birds. For most people that translates to predator removal instead of a costly coop/run upgrade.

A secure run is a good idea even if you don't plan on keeping your chickens in it full time. I have a fairly inexpensive, secure run attached to my coop for the times we have predators lurking about or visiting family brings their dogs. They're not locked up forever, and they don't seem terribly traumatized when they are kept in. It's impossible to remove every predator, and illegal to remove birds of prey. So denying access is the next best option in my book.

 

[bobbi-j]

if they swooping on you can you use beebee gun?

Not legally.

 

[AsaDotJava]

No you have a great point, in a perfect world we all have predator proof grazing areas. In reality that is quite expensive to do for any sizable space. The alternative being keeping the chickens in smaller spaces that are easier to secure, which diminishes quality of life for the birds.
Both chicken and predator have a right to exist, however you as a chicken keeper have a responsibility to protect your birds. For most people that translates to predator removal instead of a costly coop/run upgrade.

But who says absolutely that it diminishes quality of life? I think being ripped apart by a predator is what diminishes quality of life. Not everyone even lives in an area where they have the option of free ranging, and their birds do just fine if given proper care.

I have half a dozen coops and runs right now, because I have a lot of cockerels... And I have never lost a bird to a predator. It really isn't expensive to build an area for grazing... You can use netting over a larger fenced area (and for fencing, we use wooden pallets picked up for free at any number of places!). It doesn't have to be pretty (at least, not for me) - It just has to keep birds safe.

Grazing/free ranging is not essential to the life of a bird, and may very well result in loss of life... It isn't worth it to me. I WISH all my chickens could run free, grazing in the livestock manure and whatnot... But it isn't safe for them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@cmom has about the most "Ft Worth" looking example of a setup I have seen. Maybe she will post pics of it.

We lost a pullet or hen to a raptor this summer so kept our birds (about 20 of them) confined to a pretty small pen for a couple of weeks. I hated doing it, it was way too small a pen for that number of birds, but we had no other viable option. As soon as we could, we set up some cover for them in their big pen and let them back out, and it seemed that by then our red-tailed hawk had moved on to easier pickings.

 

[DaWookie]

But who says absolutely that it diminishes quality of life? I think being ripped apart by a predator is what diminishes quality of life. Not everyone even lives in an area where they have the option of free ranging, and their birds do just fine if given proper care.

I have half a dozen coops and runs right now, because I have a lot of cockerels... And I have never lost a bird to a predator. It really isn't expensive to build an area for grazing... You can use netting over a larger fenced area (and for fencing, we use wooden pallets picked up for free at any number of places!). It doesn't have to be pretty (at least, not for me) - It just has to keep birds safe.

Grazing/free ranging is not essential to the life of a bird, and may very well result in loss of life... It isn't worth it to me. I WISH all my chickens could run free, grazing in the livestock manure and whatnot... But it isn't safe for them.

You are of course aware that different people have different levels of finance. You regard a half dozen coops as inexpensive, perhaps you would be willing to assist OP financially in predator proofing their enclosure as you have?
If your not willing to do this, i dont think you should question OP's morals for doing what they can to protect the birds they love.
I would also add that acquiring the physical material to proof your area is very different from installing them, which is a specialized knowledge and costly if your unable to do it yourself.

p.s im not advocating shooting hawks, i actually dont free range due to local red tails, your original post was about predators in general and that is what im referring to

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

Get a bright pointed flash Light and use that to annoy the ones that come in close? I mean when they perch in your Yard, point it right at their Eyes?

 

[AsaDotJava]

You are of course aware that different people have different levels of finance. You regard a half dozen coops as inexpensive, perhaps you would be willing to assist OP financially in predator proofing their enclosure as you have?
If your not willing to do this, i dont think you should question OP's morals for doing what they can to protect the birds they love.

p.s im not advocating shooting hawks, i actually dont free range due to local red tails, your original post was about predators in general and that is what im referring to

First off, the OP stated that they have a secure, predator-proof coop. The problem is that the birds are being let out rather than remaining IN that coop.

You misunderstood me completely... We are very poor mountain folk that get by largely on a trade/barter system and believing in the old saying that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." I was in NO way implying that everyone should be able to construct elaborate, expensive coops... which is why I mentioned that we use free wooden pallets to make ours. One of our coops is a little pre-fabbed one from Tractor Supply that my mom got us last Christmas... Another is a stall in our barn that we enclosed completely with disgarded lattice from someone's garden project. I was trying to offer inexpensive ideas that we have utilized and that work for us, because we know ALL about working on a basically non-existent budget.

 

[Neggative]

look at 10 mile green laser on ebay, i have one and shine that things in a hawks eyes and it would never be the same, hope you get your permit tho...