What's the best defense against hawks?

[Judy]

We just built a 75'x75' run. Hawks nest in the trees maybe 150' from the run, and circle and fly over, but I have never seen a hawk go after a chicken here. Either I don't catch it, or they have easier prey available (I have 50 8-week-olds in the run and have not lost one so far.) But I am concerned. So, I plan to scrounge up a bunch of old cd's and mount them on top of the fence posts loosely so they will move in the wind; we have lots of wind here. Also plan to pick up several of those metallic looking shiny pinwheels and plant them around. I noticed they had a bin of them at the local agricultural supply store, so guess they seem to be of use to some. Also plan to implement some of the other suggestions here; I will be transplanting some shrubs/tall weeds tomorrow, and there will be a teepee sort of thing in a few days, made of metal roofing and scrap lumber. I have also seen some sort of shiny streamers flying from fence post tops around here.

Just to share my experience, as well as a couple of other suggestions I've seen here.

 

[rachaelc]

I had ravens come in and fly off with my banty babies. They went after the light colored ones first. Boohoo. So I put a bucket head scarecrow out in the pen using a cat litter bucket with permanent ink scary eyes on the top and sides . Cassette tape fingers always moving on the ends of the arms. I didn't lose any more. The ravens still hung around but never came closer.

Rachael C- mother of all

 

[uaj0sh]

I'd use netting. It will probably rip after a hawk or two dive in, but it should give them a good chance to protect themselves. I'm using a bird netting i found at home depot. I put my chicken coop in the middle of my run, so I could drape the bird netting between the fence, and the fence. My run is a good deal smaller, but you could make a shade spot in the middle with some reasonably priced materials from the Home Depot. Rolls of bird netting there are like 8-10 bucks.

Hope that helps.