Where do I find the netting that deters hawks?

[littlelemon]

We have a large fenced in area for our chicken run, and I need to figure out some way to cover it. We have hawks-My 7 week old chicks are currently out in a tractor, and twice a hawk has swooped down and landed right on top of it. The run is approximately 30ft by 50ft, so very large. I really don't know what I am going to do about this. Maybe I could just keep them in the tractor until they are full grown? Still-I am worried that a hawk will still grab a grown hen. Is it feasable for me to use the netting? If so, then where do I find it?

 

[WindyOaksYokes]

How about a tarp or covering it with chicken wire? You can also buy camo netting at any military or hunting store. My DH and DS use them all the time for hunting so I know they are big enough.

Good Luck!!!
Tes

 

[schmoo]

I found mine at Lowes. Its cheap and easy to work with. I think they called it deer netting. It was black and comes on a roll.

 

[erinm]

I got deer netting at lowes. It;s pretty strong! erinm

 

[panner123]

Deer netting will work fine in warm weather, in the winter the snow will bring it down.

 

[littlelemon]

Thank you! How do you secure it so it does not sag in the middle when you hang it?

 

[arlee453]

I got my deer netting at Lowes, 100'X7' for about $12. I pulled it very taut and secured over the ends of the run panels with zip ties. It is lightweight, so doesn't sag, and I did overlap it about 18" .

Oh, and around here I don't have to worry about snow! And, it does keep the chickens in when they get feisty.

Susan

 

[doodledo]

Make sure if the hawks swoop down and hit the netting that they dont hit the ground. I had the netting up and it did sag some in places but when the hawk hit, coming so fast, e bounced right off the ground and killed my chick. Didnt take it cause of the netting but killed the poor thing. So just make sure your netting is high enough.

 

[momoftwinsinwi]

Mine sagged, my run is 20' x 20' so I had my boys build me a ladder roost about 6' tall and I put ice cream pails on either point so it wouldn't rip thru the netting and that holds the middle up. Still sags a bit but it's better and the chickens are happy to have more roosts than what is in their coop.

 

[amyloucarp]

We found our bird netting through eBay. There's a company in Michigan that sells all sorts of things for all types of birds. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name. Our fenced in yard was about 50' x 100'. My husband bought some pvc piping from Home Depot and made what I call the end zone. When you look down at the chick yard you see this tall, long white structure that looks like an end zone. He made about 6 or 8 posts with feet. So nothing had to be dug in the ground. It's quite good. We put the netting over the yard first and then built the posts...which raised the netting up in the center probably by 20 feet or so...enough so you could walk around inside. This netting is super, it didn't cost that much, maybe 200 bucks or so and we have a lot left over. I'm curious to see how it holds up to the snow, but the grid openings are about 2" x 2", so leaves are still able to fall down through. We had to do this because one by one each week we were losing our chicks from a Red Tailed Hawk. A few days before we erected this 'end zone' we lost 7 chicks...we did try a tarp, but because of the width it was difficult to keep tight across and then when it rained, it sagged from the weight of the water. The chicks did like it though, made them feel safe. The netting has worked, haven't lost any chicks since ....we have now 3 baby red tail haws flying around...that must be who the mother was feeding. I hope this helps. If you want to email me privately for pictures of the end zone, I can do that. Thanks & take care. By the way, I have 45 chicks

All my girls...except for 4 boys that were sexed incorrectly!