Thank you for that post!
-Can you give a link to show the bobble-head you have?
-Both you and Aoxa said more roosters and that is the plan for next spring. Just my one boy for now.
-So, no chicks in Fall, but how early in the spring? I'm guessing that the hawks are migrating back north sometime in the spring but not sure the busy time.
And, yes..so far I've only broody hatched and it is at the discretion of mamma. She want broody in November last year; August this year. Maybe her cycle will keep her moving back 3 months and she'll be ready in May
I've always been hesitant to put up fake raptors because of some of the reasons you stated and I wondered if it would desensitize them to the real thing. There is just that little caution in me on that.
Did you keep the bobble up even with multiple roosters?
The owl I got was just the one my feed store had on the shelf. I'll look for an example online after I post this. My computer is crazily slow.
I had to get the bobble when I had two roos. When the hawk ate one baby, I put up a masonry twine web like I had at the old place, only improvised around trees. There were biggish gaps. It was more a deterrent than an excluder. A few days later, he got my best broody in the thickest, most roped off shade of her separate run, probly with her kids under her belly. :'( I then brought the rest of the little kids in with the roosters, and put bird netting over the masonry twine. It's the stuff orchards use to exclude songbirds from their fruits. Mine was 8' wide and had 1"holes. Because I have many many trees to work around, there were lots of gaps, but open areas were pretty closed off. This bought me some time, but the hawk kept coming around, perching and staring, and made dives at adult hens while I was there, eventually getting a hen sized cockerel inside the house while I wasn't. As soon as I got the owl the hawk stopped coming around. Several times I saw him turn around in the field next door, as if he was checking to make sure or had forgotten that the owl was there, and then pulled out upon seeing it. Warmed my heart. I don't know if he would have eventually tested the owl enough to be unafraid of it, because the crows were out in force by then.
If you have a Red Tailed hawk, and he hasn't gotten one of your birds yet, I don't think you have to try that hard. He's unlikely to risk his wings trying for your birds when they are undercover. It looks like momma is being very vigilant and safe, and babies are being good listeners. I don't free range- my birds are behind a fence, so was possible for me to put up an anti-hawk web over all of my run. If you have a bigger space then can be covered with this way, I might just get something up over the open high traffic areas. This excluded Red Tails for me. If it were me, I would get an owl up right away (being sure to move it every day), and do a bit of webbing where I could for extra credit.
You are supposed to take the owl down in the off season, and them put him back up just before the on season starts, to keep the wildlife on their toes, but I left him out all year, moving him to a new fence post very religiously all winter and spring. My birds did not lose their hawk wariness in the presence of the owl- I was worried about that, too.
It was windy this summer and my bobble fell down and broke his attachment mechanism, so right now he's perched on the roof of their house, not looking very real, instead of his carefully chosen pole. :-( Also, I'm not moving him enough these days, gotta fix that... But, I think this is an instance where prevention is much easier than remedying a problem after it has started. Once a pred has gotten one bird, they are willing to take bigger and bigger risks to get another.
My broodies have hatched clutches of chicks in early March and mid June and raised them with no losses. The early March broody was on her own out in the open with her chicks for about a month, too. No roosters, no trees, no web, no deaths. I'm in New England- my serious hawk season is Sept-Dec. We probly do have a spring migration, too, but I haven't noticed it as a serious predation time. Maybe they are passing through faster? Or maybe I had my owl routine in place this year and the year before just got lucky?
One thing to consider in a multirooster flock is that the boys need to have a rapport to work together well. Not all do. For whatever reason, my original two boys came up together and are a solid team. Persimmon (the alpha) Is a very vigilant noticer, always sees the hawk first, raises the alarm and brings the girls to safety. Helium (the beta), at Persimmon's word, either gets between the hawk and the flock (screaming obscenities), or goes looking for straggler hens, or comes away from the coop (screaming obscenities) to draw the hawk off the rest of the birds. Those two boys tend to stand together but looking in different directions throughout the day. They take turns eating and watching. They agree on the social hierarchy. This year my cockerels have had a really hard time fitting into their rhythms. Only one seemed to work well with them, and I've waited to cull him only for that reason. One boy that I want to keep for his genes is completely despised by Helium, and might not stick around bc of it. So, if you are going to keep a roo that you raise, I would pick one that is deferential to and tolerated by your lead boy. If the new guy is cowering at the edges of the flock or causing drama with his political ambitions, he can't help keep the girls safe.
Sorry so long!
