Aerial protection idea

[Oopsie]

In our experience, RiR and Plymouth Rock are the more dominant breeds. They are sweet birds but our Barred Rock have been the bigger bullies to other hens and Leghorns have been the more food aggressive towards other hens even though they are the smaller hens.
Others might have different experiences with other breeds.

I only have Barred Rocks and they push each other around like crazy! I let chickens be chickens but I did scold one of the girls for being a bully. She tried to look innocent but she had a pin feather in her beak so I wasn't buying her act.

 

[allen wranch]

30 lb fishing line in a 12x12 in grid has worked for me! It is attached to 6 ft fences.

 

[GracePd4]

Happy New Year to you all!!

I need your opinion, we are trying to figure out a way to protect the chickens from Hawks. We are thinking about putting up wire, fishing line or string (per the attached drawing), we’ve seen this on some other pages. Do you think the gaps are too big or do you think any of the other lines would help deter them? On the drawing, you can see the dots and points of connection. The fence posts are approx 10’ apart.

EDIT TO ADD: the rectangle in the corner is the coop/run location.

Nothing like a chicken project to start the new year!!

View attachment 4018597

I used cheap netting (25'x50') from Amazon and then used long shock corded poles to create a dome overhead with tension. I will send some how to and photos soon but have to rebuild. It did last through Hurricanes Debby, Idalia, and Helene (we are inside the area that received a cat 4) but from the years, some holes in the net were caused by specific branches. It works pretty great though, if you can hold out that long. I will likely rebuild it sometime over this WE, since there's an interest.

 

[SchoolPsychMom]

You can purchase 50' x 50' aviary netting on Amazon for about $30. I would take a couple of people to set it up, but seems less time consuming than weaving cord/wire. Just a suggestion. I've lost several hens to predation. We have seen Coopers hawks, swallow-tailed kites, owls, etc. (all I can identify) flying overhead. I've gone from 10 free ranging birds to 'coop only' with 4! I've been looking into ways to expand my birds area myself.

 

[allen wranch]

You can purchase 50' x 50' aviary netting on Amazon for about $30. I would take a couple of people to set it up, but seems less time consuming than weaving cord/wire. Just a suggestion. I've lost several hens to predation. We have seen Coopers hawks, swallow-tailed kites, owls, etc. (all I can identify) flyings. overhead. I've gone from 10 free ranging birds to 'coop only' with 4! I've been looking into ways to expand my birds area myself.

Unfortunately I cannot use netting because of the number of trees in my runs. Netting would be a lot easier for sure.

 

[Feather kids Mama]

Happy New Year to you all!!

I need your opinion, we are trying to figure out a way to protect the chickens from Hawks. We are thinking about putting up wire, fishing line or string (per the attached drawing), we’ve seen this on some other pages. Do you think the gaps are too big or do you think any of the other lines would help deter them? On the drawing, you can see the dots and points of connection. The fence posts are approx 10’ apart.

EDIT TO ADD: the rectangle in the corner is the coop/run location.

Nothing like a chicken project to start the new year!!

View attachment 4018597

 

[Feather kids Mama]

Years ago had trouble with hawks with 2 attacks as had an open run and finally ceased our worries after putting up hawking netting in the entire run (about 30’x30’) no more issues -wasn’t the brand below but something similar -this is from amazon and ours was about 4” (the squares) and was white- was said that in the sky, the hawks will see a black grid and not attempt any attacks and we have found this over 3 years (will live west coast BC Canada where there are many hawks and eagles).

 

[Feather kids Mama]

Unfortunately I cannot use netting because of the number of trees in my runs. Netting would be a lot easier for sure.

We have a few trees at the back of our 30’x30’ run and managed to work the netting around and thru haha -a bit messy but did the trick -found that nothing else worked - good luck

 

[GracePd4]

You can purchase 50' x 50' aviary netting on Amazon for about $30. I would take a couple of people to set it up, but seems less time consuming than weaving cord/wire. Just a suggestion. I've lost several hens to predation. We have seen Coopers hawks, swallow-tailed kites, owls, etc. (all I can identify) flying overhead. I've gone from 10 free ranging birds to 'coop only' with 4! I've been looking into ways to expand my birds area myself.

Not sure how much any of the following is really working but I have red-shoulder hawks in sweet gum tree above my run and a great horned owl is heard in my front yard very often.... So I often have my Siberian Husky in the same place as the ranging area, though not together. I also purposefully included black hens to lend the the theory that the black color causes predatory birds to regard them as crows or ravens which will try to dominate a hunting territory. (who knows if thats all bunk). Anyway I have been very surprised that the only conflict we have had when they are out of the run to range is that the hens hide under the trees when they see a hawk or falcon high above. I see this about 1 or 2 times a week maybe. Maybe all my hunting wildlife are feasting on the squirrels??!

 

[GracePd4]

We have a few trees at the back of our 30’x30’ run and managed to work the netting around and thru haha -a bit messy but did the trick -found that nothing else worked - good luck

Not sure if this helps, but I found i could cut and mold my netting pretty easily without it unraveling (may vary with brand)