Rehoboth
Chirping
We have 5 week old chicks which we have been letting out during the day from the coop where they live into a run located between our house and our garage, with a large overhanging maple tree, and several other large trees nearby. At first I thought the closeness to the house and the trees (ie no free diving area) would be enough protection. Then my son saw a hawk (I think Cooper's hawk?) fly off with a 4 week old chick. So we strung bird netting, which we had used to protect berry patches earlier in the summer, over the run. It wasn't very securely fastened, because I thought the hawk wouldn't want to risk getting tangled up in it. But a few days ago I looked out the window and saw him struggling to fly away after getting his claws in the netting. The chicks had run into the coop or under a metal tub we propped up as additional hiding space for them. I reset the netting and thought he might have learned his lesson. But today I found the tub knocked over, the netting and plastic fence disarranged, two chicks outside under the coop, and another chick completely gone (no feathers left anywhere after either of these attacks). So is fruit-protection level bird netting not strong enough? It needs to be more than a foot or two higher than the chicks? The hawk is never going to leave now that he's eaten two chicks? Will this get better when the birds are bigger, or if one turns out to be a rooster? (Although we could only keep a rooster if we get a no-crow collar to work.) Would an open area without trees nearby be safer somehow? I thought the branches would prevent a clear flight path and discourage hawks. The only "open" areas we have would still be ringed by tall trees where we have seen hawks and owls perching in the past.
eta: we have friends who live a few miles away and have kept chickens for years in a run with no cover at all, and no hawk problem. But I think they don't put theirs outside till they're much older. I wanted these chicks to learn to forage, which is why we started giving them lots of outdoor time early.
eta: we have friends who live a few miles away and have kept chickens for years in a run with no cover at all, and no hawk problem. But I think they don't put theirs outside till they're much older. I wanted these chicks to learn to forage, which is why we started giving them lots of outdoor time early.
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