Hawks

[scooter147]

 

[scooter147]

Develop a taste for Hawk?

 

[cmarlowdrive]

I had a close call with a very large hawk myself. My girls were coming in getting ready to roost for the night and a very large hawk flew very low over the run checking things out. She was so large that I am sure she would have no problem taking a standard sized bird. I read on this site about "Hawk Tepee's" in the yard.
I now have three Hawk Tepee's placed strategically throughout and my girls have a place to run if they have any kind of warning. I don't know if this will save their lives, but, I am willing to try anything. My Tepee's are made out of old pallets and covered with weeds, sticks, hay and grass. They are anchored down with filled jugs of water attached with string. My tepees are just high enough off the ground that the big girls can run in quick. I am also installing fake crows and an owl.

 

[scooter147]

I had a close call with a very large hawk myself. My girls were coming in getting ready to roost for the night and a very large hawk flew very low over the run checking things out. She was so large that I am sure she would have no problem taking a standard sized bird. I read on this site about "Hawk Tepee's" in the yard.
I now have three Hawk Tepee's placed strategically throughout and my girls have a place to run if they have any kind of warning. I don't know if this will save their lives, but, I am willing to try anything. My Tepee's are made out of old pallets and covered with weeds, sticks, hay and grass. They are anchored down with filled jugs of water attached with string. My tepees are just high enough off the ground that the big girls can run in quick. I am also installing fake crows and an owl.

The fake owl is likely to scare your chickens more than it will the hawks, at least it did mine.

 

[cmarlowdrive]

OMG . . . I wondered about that.

 

[Lelilamom]

I had a close call with a very large hawk myself. My girls were coming in getting ready to roost for the night and a very large hawk flew very low over the run checking things out. She was so large that I am sure she would have no problem taking a standard sized bird. I read on this site about "Hawk Tepee's" in the yard.
I now have three Hawk Tepee's placed strategically throughout and my girls have a place to run if they have any kind of warning. I don't know if this will save their lives, but, I am willing to try anything. My Tepee's are made out of old pallets and covered with weeds, sticks, hay and grass. They are anchored down with filled jugs of water attached with string. My tepees are just high enough off the ground that the big girls can run in quick. I am also installing fake crows and an owl.

How are your chicken teepees working? Do you notice the chickens using them? We just lost our fourth chicken in four months to a redtail yesterday. Seriously ****** off at this point.

 

[cmarlowdrive]

I am so sorry for your loss. It is heartbreaking.

My teepees are made of pallets and don't blow down in the wind like the first one I made out of sticks, twigs and leaf matter. Our teepees are pallets screwed together with feet to get it up off ground so the girls can get in any side very quickly.
They are covered in leaf, grass, hay, sticks, yard for camouflage and keep a hawk from perching on top. My girls are not afraid to go in and out of the tepees while free ranging during the day. Since adding fake crows and a rather large fake Owl, I have not had another hawk sighting. It is good to know my girls have somewhere to go in the event that a hawk gets too close. I do not have a rooster, but, 2 chicken friendly dogs that help to deter predators, including coyotes, raccoons, opossums, etc.

Anything is worth a try, right?

 

[BIggoMamma]

Hawks are supposed to be solitary hunters but I promise I have sat and watched them hunt in pairs. They do call up other hawks I don't care what experts say. They will screetch and before long here comes a buddy. One suggestion is the plastic statues of owls for sale in dollar stores and farm supply stores. I always wondered what those were for. Owls allegedly fight hawks and the statue of the owl repels hawks. That is a theory I have no idea the accuracy. However people keep buying tacking owl statues with realistic eyes. I can tell you the hawks here show no fear of me coming very close to them, I was very surprised. Another idea, I have a friend who said to get a battery powered radio put it in the chicken coop to TALK RADIO and turn it up loud he said it repelled all kinds of predators.

 

[BIggoMamma]

Thank you for the Tee Pee idea that is ingenius! Get a tacky fake owl statue they say owls repel hawks. I always wondered why the farm supply sold those things.

 

[BIggoMamma]

One more thing. I witnessed a hawk attack one of my large hens. It was so fast if I had not been standing there I would have missed it. My gentle, kind rooster immediately sprang into action. The hawk was on the hen and the rooster jumped on the hawk. I could not believe it. He dug into that hawk and the hawk turned loose of the hen and flew away. He is now my hero. There is no substitute for a good rooster or two or three, if they can get along.