Well, I'm officially thoroughly bummed out today…I lost my Class A red frizzled mille fleur “Needlelace” today to what I assume was a hawk, or some sort of bird-of-prey. I had moved her and her 2 cohorts, along with Napoleon, my red mille fleur roo, to their new outside coop with their own private run. It was an attempt to introduce them to it gradually, letting them adjust to their new surroundings for a few hours, then putting them back in the main coop at night. After a day or two, they would have been less apprehensive about spending the night in their new “digs”. I spent an hour or so with them, and things looked to be going well, so I came in for lunch, and when I later went back out, I couldn't find Needlelace anywhere, and the rest of the gang wanted OUT as I opened the gate to their private run. After searching everywhere, thinking perhaps she flew out over the fence to get back to the main coop, I found a pile of feathers in a corner of their new yard, obviously from Needlelace. The hawk, or whatever, had pinned her in the corner and then took off with her. We have plenty of predators here in coastal SC, so intellectually I knew this day would eventually come, but…it still hurts.
Tomorrow will be spent fortifying the chicken yard…I will go out and try to find some ornamental owls that get mounted to a post (they supposedly do a good job keeping hawks at bay), and I will string fishing line overhead in their private run. I have read that this prevents hawks from swooping down to catch their prey. Napoleon and his girls ran back to the main coop and have not ventured outside again, so I guess it will be a while before they're ready to make the move!
Bummer!!!
Sorry to hear what happen but I just had to post to let you know the owls don’t work, have one in my yard and I lost 4 guineas last week to hawks. The only way would be covered pens I am afraid. Love you Seramas & your website is awesome!
Sorry to hear about your loss. I’ve had several people tell me about the owls not being effective so I’ve given up on that idea. However, I corralled my son and we put up posts and fishing line over the entire yard surrounding the chicken coop. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the yard in the hopes that the hawk does not figure out a new way to get to my birds.
Thanks for letting me know about the owl, I appreciate the advice.
The best is to keep your poultry in a close kennel. I also had trubles with skunks and ringtales.
What about covering the run with fruit tree and berry bush wildlife netting, purchased at Loews or other farm stores, also drill a hole in an old cd, and hang from a tree with fishline, it dangles more this way , and reflects light which puts the raptor off,this works better than hanging from the center hole. We have naughty hawks and bald eagles and these 2 methods have worked well so far, sorry for your loss.
This particular run only has 4′ high fencing around the coop (these particular birds aren’t flyers), so I still needed to walk into, or under the netting…The fishing line seems to be working well so far, but I do like the tip on drilling holes through the cd’s! Using that center hole just never seemed to work well for me! Thanks!
“Game bird netting” is inexpensive and would be good for putting overhead to.