Use of mannequins to deter hawks?

[Nostalchic]

Aliprowl, I think that's innovative, could work. Maybe you could just assemble some scarecrows - or "scare-hawks' - from old clothes. Of course, if your chickens are anything like mine, the mannequins will soon be dressed in chicken poo, since mine immediately hop right up into the chair I have out in our pasture (whether I'm sitting in it or not) or anything else that's a little elevated. If nothing else, the chair or whatever you have the mannequins displayed on will afford a little cover to dive under...

 

[trinityfly]

Scarecrows work, but not for long. My current scarecrow is a shirt and pants draped on a hanger with a hat secured by the hook of the hanger. Then I suspend it from a tree limb not quite touching the ground so that it moves with the breeze. I change my scarecrow's appearance sometimes and also move it to different locations periodically. However, any predator will soon realized that the scarecrow is and become desensitized to its presence.

These tactics have worked on the more timid of prey birds. Having said that my wife had an ugly encounter with a full grown Golden Eagle. Our chickens free range in an a forest of large Fir trees, they have a little more than an acre to roam in. Within that area are several clearings where we have had to remove some of the larger trees, most clearings are not much bigger than about 20 ft. X 20 ft. That size is apparently adequate for a bird of prey that will perch on the tops of the trees to drop down on unsuspecting chickens. We had lost one bird earlier in the week and found noting but feathers on the ground but since it was so rare an occurrence that we knew we couldn’t protect them if the chickens were to be free range. We did reposition the scarecrow and decided to just keep a look out if we saw any potential dangers. About a week later my wife was taking some vegetable clippings down for the chickens when she came upon a full grown Golden Eagle standing on top of one of our hens. Without thinking and heedless of her own safety, my wife charged the big bird while it attempted to take off, flapping its wings, hoping across the clearing on one foot while holding our hen with the other attempting to get airborne. My wife chased after the eagle, yelling and waving her arms while it dragged that poor chicken for 15 or 20 ft. Suddenly the eagle took off but when several feet off the ground it lost its grip on the hen and the chicken fell like a lump nearly at my wife's feet. She picked up the hen, saw no blood but that it was clearly in shock. She took the hen back to the coop and put it in a nest. Two hours later that hen was out and scratching up the pine and fir needles no worse for the wear

Months have now past and no other attacks from that eagle. We have put our canoe upside down on saw horses in the largest clearing where the eagle attach had occurred. Now the chickens have some overhead cover while the scarecrow hangs near by.

By the way, the hen is just fine.

 

[speckledhen]

They pay no attention whatsoever to my scarecrow, Willliam. He's dressed in my DH's old clothes so he looks somewhat real.

 

[jsimplytx125]

Have you seen this?

Poor kid lost his pet. If humans are too slow, then a manniquin is just a statue, right?