How to protect chickens from hawks is something every Gallus gallus owner should keep top of idea , especially if your flock free ranges . Predators are an ever - present threat to every poultry owner . We interest about raccoons and phalanger climb walls and fence to get to our birdie , snakes and squirrels stealing eggs , Fox and coyotes carrying off our biddy . We focus so much attention on these creeping , crawl , slinking , running creatures that often we overlook the dangers that literally overlook us : aery vulture .
One huge group of aerial predators — owls — are mostly nocturnal and search when our birds are normally locked in their coops for the night ( although some poulet keepers have report having to chase after owls away in the day ) . mortarboard , though , lurch preponderantly during daylight hour . With more than 15 species of war hawk in North America , poultry keepers are bound to have at least one as a neighbor . screw how to protect chicken from hawks can check your birds do n’t become dissipated food for these unwanted free fall - in guests by following these proffer to protect your raft from hawk . Shutterstock
1. Round Up Your Roamers
complimentary - reach birds might have the globe at their base , but these chickens are the I most easily place by hawks . Shelter and safety are hard to find on the kitchen range , while nature provides mass of places for predators to rest and observe . Protect your chicken by creating an enclosure , or run , connect to their cage . A wimp run provides plenty of room to ramble but also keep chickens safely corralled and closer at paw . fillip : take in eggs is easier because you do n’t have to seek your entire prop . If a permanent run or henhouse is not possible , debate building a moveable chicken tractor . This keeps your birds in one location but still let them enjoy your grazing land under shelter .
2. Cover Your Runs
poulet wire is flimsy and so makes a poor fence for a chicken rivulet — ground - found vulture can rip right through it — it make an splendid overhead cover for your birds . The sight of a protective layer between it and your layers is often enough of a deterrent for a war hawk , especially ifthe gauze used is orange , which hawk can easily see . Those raptors that attempt to dive through the chicken wire become entangled in it , giving your chickens time to retreat to safety . Any type of veiling serve the same protective purpose when brood a run . For maximum protective cover , make certain the covering is securely fastened .
3. Shine Some Bling
meditative , mirror - like Earth’s surface have long proven effective in spooking aerial predators . TheNorth American Bluebird Societyand theCornell Lab of Ornithologyrecommend these to minimize damage by birds , continue them aside from their intended aim or from an area they see as easy picking . Ready - made predator spookers can be witness at Amazon and other on-line sources as well as at wild - dame supply stores , but it just lease textile such as old CDs or DVDs , meditative tape recording , or long strips of silvery Mylar to create your own . establish these high on your coop or along the top of your run ’s fencing wrinkle to make a shining deterrent to any curious hawk and other raptorial chick . Shutterstock
4. Hide the Food
Several species of hawk , including the tart - skinned hawk and the Cooper ’s mortarboard , objective feeders , not for the food offer there but for the boo that congregate to eat . To keep your chooks from getting picked off during the course of dinner party , relocate your self-feeder — and waterer — so that they are inside your chicken coop and not out in the run . If there is no place inside your chicken coop where these can be sanitarily installed , consider building a eating post in your run . A covered feeding post will keep your birds good while they eat and also cater a seat for them to cover should a hawk give overhead .
5. Bring in the Boys
The traditional role of a cock , other than to help create bird , is to protect his slew of hens . At the first preindication of danger , a rooster will call out to his girls , sending them scurrying to safe while he stand guard against the threat , tangible or perceived . At times I ’ve looked out the windowpane and learn a half - dozen roosters , standing stemma still in front of their cage ’ pappa door , their heads stretch out skyward — and not one hen in hatful . Usually a dud vulture has been the beginning of alarm , but once a red - tail mortarboard perched on top of our Orpington cage . The blaring that this encroachment do could have woken the dead . By the metre Jae and I raced outside , the mortarboard had already assume off , undoubtedly quite displeased by the din .
Not every city , town or homeowners tie-up allows for roosters , so check your local bylaws and ordinances before add a cock to your flock . Allow for a 30 - solar day quarantine off from your little girl to insure everyone remains healthy .
As much a nuisance as hawks are to poultry keeper , it is all-important to remember that they are protected by Union practice of law . The Migratory Bird Actprohibits anyone — even a chicken owner whose flock has been decimated by these raptors — from injuring or drink down hawks or otherwise causing then harm . If you ’ve taken the measures suggested here without positive results , adjoin your local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office or your body politic ’s department of agriculture to attempt aid in resolving your hawk situation .
This story about how to protect poulet from hawks was written for Chickens magazine . Click here to pledge .
Shutterstock
Shutterstock
