Where do I get netting to cover a run?

[flowerchicks]

I am contemplating covering parts of my run area with netting or something. I lost my favorite pullet to a hawk Friday, and we saw him sitting at the top of a pine tree Saturday morning, I assume looking for breakfast. I am not sure she was taken in the run, since we let them into the "big yard" in the afternoon, but I know that hawk is there, and I don't want to take any chances.

I see a lot of posts about putting netting above the run, but I don't know where to get it. Is it expensive? My run is about 50 x50 ft., but the area I am thinking of covering is more like 25x25ft. I have several trees in the middle that I was thinking of using as the edges of the netting, just trying to make it more difficult for a hawk to dive bomb my girls. I am envisioning something like netting used for fishing, is that what it is? I have lots of pine and oak trees that are constantly dropping leaves and branches, so I don't want to invest a lot of money into something that is only going to get destroyed over the winter.

Also, I have seen in posts that crows will keep hawks away. Has anybody had any experience with woodpeckers doing the same thing? Their run is right in the middle of the territory of about 30+ woodpeckers. I have seen them chase squirrels and blue jays, and I would assume they would do the same to a hawk. Has anybody seen this?

 

[TigerLilly]

I got black plastic netting in the garden center at Lowe's. Cant remember what I spent on it though, but I think it was a 3 ft x 50 ft roll for under $15. I got it more for keeping my flyers IN the coop, rather than keeping anything out. Thank God, no problem with predators (other than my own dogs--since rehomed). Good luck!

 

[Stephanie739]

I use the netting that goes around a trampoline to cover mine.

 

[KarenP]

I also got rolls of plastic green mesh covering in the garden center at Home depot for 10.00 a roll. I secured it to the top of my chain link fence with tie wraps. You can see it in the pic below. Sorry about your loss, that's heartbreaking and my biggest fear.

 

[stilldeb]

Ours are 10 x 10 and all topped with green plastic webbing from Lowe's. It will definitely keep hawks out. It kept the one out that was sitting ON my chicken run the other day til I ran outside and told it to get the *&(% outta here! If you have a problem with larger (four-legged) predators, it probably wouldn't do much for them, but we don't and everyone is locked up tight in the coop at night.

 

[Chicks & Guineas]

Look for batting cage netting. Yes, the kind for baseball batting cages. If you do an online search you can find several suppliers, and when I got mine I got remnants at a very reduced price. The batting cages are huge so a remnant piece might still be plenty big enough to cover a run. I think I got several pieces that were something like 70 feet long by 20 feet wide. I've still got some left. And if you need to put pieces together it's easy to just weave them together with a piece of nylon twine.

 

[sambia62]

I used fishing line I wove it back and forth in sort of a spider web fashion I was told this trick buy a old but successful chicken farmer as it ages and frays it will need to be replaced but it has worked for me for over a year now and I live where the hawks are plentiful my neighbor has lost many a chicken to those hawks and i havent lost one at all as of yet I told him about the fishing line he tried it and now he too uses the line method and so far so good

 

[Nonny]

I used bird netting, it's surprisingly strong, lightweight and easy to install. A 4m (12ft?) square section of it cost me about $10 from memory. The only downside is that it's practically invisible to birds, so if you get a small (non-predatorial) wild bird accidentally in the run they'll just about kill themselves thrashing about trying to get out through the netting.

Edited to add: It's like this stuff, only black: http://www.haverford.com.au/birdnetting.html. We don't really have aerial predators here so for me it was mainly to keep out the birds that were after our food. I'm not sure if it would keep hawks out.

 

[geoff40]

All good ideas. Chicken wire also, if you can find the right stuff. The 2 inch hole size, 6 foot tall, 50 foot rolls are not expensive, and just might be cheaper than some of the above mentioned ideas. A roll of bailing wire would sew it all together for you.

 

[Mahonri]

Go to the Icelandic thread and check out Mary's (The Sheriff) new netting over her runs. She bought black so you can hardly see it.