What are hawks afraid of?

[scooter147]

I have found that eventually the hawks figure out the line and cd's are not a threat and move in for chicken dinner. Keep in mind these hawks can hunt squirrels and catch squirrels in the thickest of the forest canopy's so negotiating some string is not a problem.
I don't know how big your run is but netting is the only sure way to keep them out. I use deer netting I found at Lowes'. 7 feet by 100 feet for about 11 dollars.
There is something else hawks are afraid of.....................................................

They look like this years young to me.

 

[humphrey farms]

I don't know, we have crows, but the red tail hawk is big enough to eat the crow. I have had horrible hawk issues this year, 2 of my babies and the rest will not come out of their coop! These girls have a net covering the large run and they will only come out if I'm with them. Its sad.
I wonder if when I'm not out there that they come and sit in the trees watching the hens. That would be horrible, I have not seen anything but something makes the hens so terrified.
Good luck, what ever you try will only work so long, they are not as dumb as we wish they were! Oh, and keep us posted, I'd love some new ideas.

We seem to have hawks here in Western Maine too. Our rooster would risk his life for his flock. Thank God he did his job yesterday or we would be missing one or two. Our dogs weren't much help either!!! They were sleeping on the couch!!! But come night they have no problem using the doggie door to go out and bark at predators!

 

[scooter147]

Good for the roo, worth his weight in gold.
I've had roosters that would stand up and take on any bird of prey

and I've had roosters that beat the hens to the nearest hiding spots and just stand there raise cane.

 

[Teery]

I have found that eventually the hawks figure out the line and cd's are not a threat and move in for chicken dinner. Keep in mind these hawks can hunt squirrels and catch squirrels in the thickest of the forest canopy's so negotiating some string is not a problem.
I don't know how big your run is but netting is the only sure way to keep them out. I use deer netting I found at Lowes'. 7 feet by 100 feet for about 11 dollars.
There is something else hawks are afraid of.....................................................

They look like this years young to me.

Agree, we used the CD method to keep birds out of our fruit trees. It worked for a short while but they got used to them. What I found out from my observation that ravens chase the hawks and I have a pair of mocking birds who control the air space over my property that chase the ravens and the occasional hawks away. This is good for the garden and will be for the chickens. I have to sacrifice some fruit which is no big deal as the CD's didn't work anyway...and the CD's do look ugly in the trees.

 

[Miss Elle]

How do I get some mocking birds
Our run is covered with a roof and the sides are hard wire cloth. The run is 8x12 for 10 hens. I plan on expanding next year to double that and adding 5-6 more girls.

I think the hawks got their beaks or talons through the hard wire cloth and the girls were trying to stop this and got hurt in the process. Or, the stress caused them to fight between themselves? 5/10 have comb and beak injuries..minor but none the lessthey are there. I spent a bit of time gathering each one up and treating them with vetermycin and getting quite the scratching from a few. I'll bring a towel next time to wrap those feet! I swear I look as bad as they do lol!

I'd love a roo but I live in a single residence neighborhood and I am glad the my surrounding neighbors have allowed me to have me hens. If I got a roo I'd be in trouble or I'd have to do something about his crow which I'm so sure that would be fair to him and prob. would not help him protect as he should.

I want them to free range at least once a day under my supervision, I have a golden that is good with my girls and I'm sure could help deter this pair. I have two GSDs but they like my girls TOO much..and that's to bad because they clear my yard of predators every time I let them out. Do hawks have a "down time"? Prob. not..sigh.

Go away you beautiful birds and leave my girls alone!

 

[scooter147]

I think your girls got hurt my trying to "escape". Chickens when panicked like yours were will run and fly into fencing extremely hard. I suspect that is how they were hurt and not trying to fight with the hawk.

 

[Miss Elle]

Now THAT makes sense!!!

 

[heybarb]

We haven't lost a chicken to a hawk since I hung up my fake owl and about 10 CDs from the trees almost 6 months ago. I move them around every week or two, so that our yard is always changing. I know it hasn't "solved" the problem, because I still see hawks around, but they haven't been bothering us so I count myself lucky!

 

[Teery]

We haven't lost a chicken to a hawk since I hung up my fake owl and about 10 CDs from the trees almost 6 months ago. I move them around every week or two, so that our yard is always changing. I know it hasn't "solved" the problem, because I still see hawks around, but they haven't been bothering us so I count myself lucky!

Coopers hawk attacking a owl decoy:

 

[scooter147]

So the fake owl doesn't scare the chickens?
I tried the fake owl thing and it scared the bejesus out of my hens for the entire week I left it up. I finally had to take it down.