supervised free-ranging - can you truly protect from hawks?

[Havi Hoagie]

Okay thanks everyone. My takeaways here are

- reconsider a rooster (and I'll look at the info on BYC)
- stay VERY close to my littles if I do let them out. And maybe try to direct them to parts of the yard w/ more coverage (we do have boatloads of knotweed around the perimeter of our yard, which seems like pretty good cover). and accept that there's still risk even if I'm right there with them
- pre-dusk supervised free range might not be the ideal time


I'd never planned on 100% free range, but I was hoping I could have a somewhat relaxed supervised free range situation. Like me in the garden while they are pecking around elsewhere in the yard. But after the near miss the other day I'm accepting that this probably won't be the case. I do have them in a very predator-proof tractor that I move daily and I'm going to expand the run part of it since I likely won't let them out as much as I'd hoped to (hard to be glued to chickens when you also have little kids to keep out of trouble )

 

[falconertomt]

The short answer is you cannot prevent a hawk or owl attack unless they cannot physically get to your birds (They will sometimes still try). I have witnessed some pretty incredible trickery performed by raptors, and they can be totally fearless.

I wrote an article here that offers some pointers: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-or-how-to-prevent-the-hawk-owl-attack.66431/

If you let your chickens out of a coop, or fully covered run, you will run the risk of an attack. Urban areas are not safe either, I regularly find hawks and owls in the middle of town here in Utah, and have seen them all over in other areas.

 

[Neggative]

around 1/4 of my flock was killed by hawks while we were on vacation too the mountians.... but as i have a HUGE pen theres no way to cover it..... the only way to get rid of hawks for good is to kill them which is highly ellegal.... i dont know what you should do..... its so hard to know with hawks..... you could put up netting or fishing string or something shiny and reflective but it looks absolutely TERIBBLE!

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

i think in my case the hawks were short on food, we were gone, and there was nothing protecting my hens..... now i have a rooster!!!View attachment 2155077

What a handsome fella! Good on you!

 

[2Old2Crow]

I guess I lived the high life. We have an abundance of red tail hawks. Not once did they ever mess with my orpingtons. And they free ranged all day. They did however, decimate our dove population.

 

[Avogadro]

We have quite the raptor population in our area, and will see a handful of hawks daily. The flock free ranges (consisting of 3 month old chicks and adults with one rooster), we set up small lean-tos throughout their area so they're never too far from cover (along with natural thicket that they're able to hide in). We've never witnessed a hawk swooping at the girls, and whenever a hawk makes itself known everyone bolts for shelter. My rooster is pretty good at giving the warning call, but when he drops the ball at least one girl will start booking it and the rest follow.

A rather strange strategy that's been working extremely well for us was done unintentionally. One night when I was bringing the egg basket in I set it down to secure a gate, and in those few minutes of securing the gate my mind wandered far enough to where the thought of the full egg basket was completely lost. In the morning my partner quipped how the local crows loved my offering. GAH! However, since leaving a full egg basket to the crows (I'm sure there's some bad luck in store for me having offered a symbol of fertility to an omen of death...), they've been hanging around the property and dive bombing any hawks that get close to the coop! It's an excellent security force!

 

[Aunt Angus]

I've had to chase off hawks - Coopers, primarily, though we have Red Shouldered hawks around. I beaned one with an egg, squirted one with a hose, and used a laser pointer to scare them. I do supervised free ranging. And when I say supervised, I mean supervised. I follow the chickens around and look at the sky. But I'm a lil crazy.

All craziness aside, I now have a rooster. He's a bantam, but he does a great job watching the sky, and I've seen him run off my mom's rottweiler. That roo isn't afraid of anything. I highly recommend a rooster. It will give you a little bit of peace.

 

[Aunt Angus]

My favorite is the American Game rooster, although you can have only one. Mine are very good around people.

A rooster being a problem can be a function of genetics and / or how raised / treated even as an adult. A lot of people may not be well suited for roosters as will create monsters in relatively short order.

Very true. There doesn't seem to be a "nice" breed, only "nice" individual birds. But there are lots of articles about them on BYC ( I'm thinking of Shadrach's, of course).

 

[elmo]

I have to say the answer to your question is no: you can't fully protect your flock from hawks if you allow them to free range. We know of someone who was about 20 feet away from one of his chickens in their suburban back yard when it was attacked and killed by a hawk. It was horrible, because he was with his children at the time and they saw it, too.

Getting a rooster isn't any guarantee, either. The rooster himself can be killed by a hawk.

I think if you free range, you've just got to become comfortable with the idea that risk comes with the benefits.

 

[Vicker]

I just posted elsewhere that crow decoys are helpful. Crows are natural enemies of hawks and owls. Having black chickens in your flock also seems to serve the same purpose and would probably work better if the chickens are ranging very far away from the crow decoy. I have crow decoys by the coop and run. I added Black Australorps to my flock. Haven't had another attack yet.