What can I do to scare away a hawk?

[nancysmith2]

Has anyone tried playing music? My father keeps suggesting hanging CD's for light reflection and playing music to confuse them. Anyone ever tried that?

 

[Manok-Tao]

Would helium ballons tied off at a few different heights in the problem area help?

 

[gsim]

Quote:

They surely will kill full grown full sized layers and even roos. They will break their necks and stay there to feast if the chicken is too big to carry away. They always target chicks first tho. They prefer a swoop & grab with lots of momentum so as to easily carry them up and away with their prey. They hit so hard that they break the neck of the prey. Netting is only sure-fire thing to protect against hawks. Flock losses are the price of participation with free-ranging. Is isn't IF, but WHEN .

 

[KathyK]

Flock losses are the price of participation with free-ranging. Is isn't IF, but WHEN

Oh darn. I was afraid of that. Are there any breeds that are more wary in general to hawks? Seriously, they are around almost daily. Crows are here also, so they must not mind them. I'm leaning more and more towards a large portable pen/coop that I can keep covered. Sure would like to pasture them, tho.​

 

[SummerwindNC]

My red tailed hawk doesn't care. He stands out there daily, staring into the chicken run waiting for them to come out of the coop. Note he is actually standing under the roof overhang!!! Sometimes he gets around a pole where I can't see him too. I can get with 10 feet of the bugger, he doesn't move. He just loves him some organic raised chicken, yesssirrreeee!! He's already tasted!! He has chased my pets on foot into the garage!! He has little fear...okay, no fear. Does he care that there are dogs in the yard..No. Six cats, 2 being jumbo's...NO. Does he care that 20 feet away there is a larger coop being built with framing nailers going....NO. I swear his sucker was someones pet at one time. Has to be or he's lazy. He has hundreds if not thousands of acres of fields & woods to cruise but ah, he likes my 3/4 carved out in the woods (we have 12 acres of woods). He laughs at me from branches no higher then 10 feet. He knows he's protected & he's mocking me. You'll never free range again lady......I know I heard him say that. Seriously, I've dealt with red tails before, owls, foxes, this one actually scares me. I've never witnessed anything like him, EVER. Hubby couldn't believe it until I sent him out one morning to open up, and there he was!! Okay, I was him fly in so that's why I sent the man out. hahaha Red tailed has to be chased out of the yard!

Sorry for the vent guys.

I love free ranging my crew (of 10) but that can't happen until HE goes away.

KATinNC

 

[Jmurcks]

Is it true that the hawks have to have a large bit of room to swoop down and fly back up or is that a myth?

 

[biddyboo]

We had a pair of red tails take up watch in a dead tree overlooking our backyard and chicken coop/run area. Our hens would go out to free range a couple hours each afternoon til sundown. We never saw him swoop or attack, but as someone said, it was not if...but when it would happen. Knowing that shooting it to kill is illegal, we discussed how to frighten it away. Our oldest son came out of the house with a bottle rocket and roman candle left over from July 4. We watched as he walked toward the hawk's perch, getting within about 50 yards, he set off the roman candle, and with the first flash and boom, the hawk left and has not returned. Happenchance? Who knows? Anyway, we didn't kill him or intend to, but we intended to make him find other targets, and I think it worked. ~G Btw, we haven't let down our guard--we check the dead tree and nearby woods daily, wondering if he or a cousin will come back to haunt our hens.

 

[kayri]

I lost 2 full grown layers to hawks in the last two months. It is awful to come home and find bloody decapitated half- eaten pets around the yard. I had a fake owl with a moveable head that I moved every week. They have a lot of cover but the other day I heard them yelling and I came around to the other side of the house and saw a hawk, small and dark take off from the ground. It was walking towards my small modern game bird that was cowering under three little stems of a plant. I finally fenced in a smaller area- 12 ft by 30 ft and netted it with nylon garden net. The day after I did it, at dusk I watched a huge red tail swoop down and try to pick off one of my girls as they were headed up the ramp into the coop. I don't think it could have gotten through the netting. I ran out and yelled and it flew away. I don't know how long I'll have to keep them under the netting, I can tell they are going a bit stir crazy, but I saw a pair of huge red tails circling and a pair of smaller dark hawks? Chicken hawks? coopers hawks? I don't know. But I wish they would go somewhere else. . .

 

[drsmile]

Quote:

They surely will kill full grown full sized layers and even roos. They will break their necks and stay there to feast if the chicken is too big to carry away. They always target chicks first tho. They prefer a swoop & grab with lots of momentum so as to easily carry them up and away with their prey. They hit so hard that they break the neck of the prey. Netting is only sure-fire thing to protect against hawks. Flock losses are the price of participation with free-ranging. Is isn't IF, but WHEN .

Now there is some wisdom!! "It isn't if, but when." 9 mos in, 8 hens a laying, 1 roo protecting. Free ranging and loving it. Coopers hawk killed one of our EE's. Looks like I will be adding onto the run the next warm weekend! Better alive and disgruntled then free and dead.

 

[little_grey_bantam]

lol, I'm all excited. In order to protect your birds, put a cow in front of them