More about chicken fencing and hawk attacks

Since the chickens have been mostly kept behind their new fence, we haven't seemed to have as much problem with hawks.  About half the area has a decent web of monofilament overhead, but the other half is a little more open.  I haven't taken the time to put up the fishing line, and there isn't as much to attach it to - that's going to take a little more thought...and work.

I was working in yard the other day when a shadow caught my eye - a hawk had just flown over my head, just a foot or two above, headed straight for the chicken area.  When it reached the new fence and monofilament, it banked hard and flew up over the garage.  I took this as anecdotal evidence that what I had done was protecting the chickens.  So much for that theory.

Last night was probably as cold as it's been all winter - 29 degrees here. After a cold night hawks are hungry.  About 8:30 this morning we hear the sounds of a hawk attack.  We see chickens hiding in one area, but no signs of a disturbance.  I go inside the fence to look around and it's quiet, until I hear a squawk.  There are a number of small volunteer nandina bushes in the area - I can't decide whether to cut them down, or leave them as cover for the chickens.  I move toward one these bushes and a hawk flies out of it, trying to carry one of the chickens with it.  Before it gets out of the yard it drops the hen.  I was able to catch her and take a look at her and she seems ok for the most part.  Meanwhile the chickens have mostly left the area through the gate that I left open.  The area where this attack happened was the less-well-protected area that I mentioned before.

So now that the chickens are out there's nothing I can do - it's like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.  They've congregated in an area against the house, near the back steps and the HVAC and the hot water heater.  It seems fairly safe to me, so I go back the the house.  An hour or so later we hear noises again, and a hawk has tried to get them there as well.  After a while I become curious where the chickens might be hiding this time.  I look all over the yard and I can only find two - one in a nesting box and one in the nandina.  Just after eleven - another hawk attack!  It appears the hen in the bush left to join the other chickens and was attacked the same place as before, near the house.  Ella came out and we were able to grab her and put her with the rest of the chickens.  They were apparently hiding in our covered garden storage area, among the pots and wire fencing.  No wonder I couldn't find them.

I hope they are going to be ok the rest of the day.  We have plans later and won't be around to protect them.  Everything that has happened today has made it that much more important that I work on putting up more monofilament and protecting the chickens better.

Chicken Fence

So, the fence...as of Saturday afternoon it was finished.  I still have a few details to take care of, but it is functional.  Like I mentioned before, I still have a small area to close off on the other side of the garage.  The fence got its test run last Sunday morning and the chickens weren't happy.  One of the smaller bantams flew over it, which made the larger birds even more anxious about getting out.  I couldn't watch that, so I opened the gate.  I felt like I had failed, but it reminded me that there was more to this than just the fence.

I remembered that I thought this might happen, and that I needed to clip some wings.  I didn't have much time left in the weekend, so after the chickens went to bed and it got dark, I went out there and was able to grab each of the smaller hens and clip one wing, and put them back without causing too much of a ruckus.  It will make me feel better if none of them are able to get out - that way everyone will get used to the idea of a smaller space.  When I say "smaller space", I'm still talking more than a thousand square feet as opposed to a quarter acre.  We went through this when we first got our flock, so it's just a matter of time before everyone is adjusted.

Another part of fencing them off was to protect them better than I could when they had the run of the yard - that includes stringing fishing line above as much the area as possible.  I had heard that the fishing line kept the hawks away from the chickens.  I wasn't sure if they saw and stayed away, or they would hit it and become disoriented.  Although they have attacked our flock numerous times, I was wary of doing anything that might hurt the hawks.  I just did some reading around the web and the consensus is that the hawk sees it and stays away.  I hope that is the case.  I still have a few more areas to string it up, but I'm more than half way done.

It's been a week since I wrote this post and the chickens have adjusted fine.  It is different having them fenced off.  We're not able to interact with them in the same way, and they've become more skittish around us, almost immediately.  When they see me, sometimes they act like they want to get out - I still feel like I've done something bad to them!  We'll get used to it, and hopefully they're more protected.  Anyway, I have been letting them out in the evenings.  I just planed my backyard garden for the first time in almost a year.  In the last week the chickens hadn't made it as far as the garden in their evening wanderings, but today they immediately found it.  That's ok - they can't do much damage right now.

My Week Off

I took the week off - one would think that I took a vacation from this blog, but that's not true.  I've been hard at work volunteering at the Master Gardener's office, planting fruit trees at Cypress Gardens, and building a chicken fence at home - and, if I have time, building a few rain barrels.

I'm always afraid that I will procrastinate when I take time off from work - I never seem to get everything done that I had planned.  This has not been one of those times.  My main project was building a chicken fence.  We've had some hawk attacks, and we are also tired of the chickens having the run of the yard, so a fence was in order.  It's been planned for a long time, but it finally got built this week - as of this writing, everything but the gate is finished.  I started out the week very motivated, and the fence was probably three-quarters finished by Monday night.  I had hopes that I could finish by then, because the next two or three days would be busy.

When I had my week off planned, the first thing I scheduled was a double shift at the Master Gardener's office.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about working the whole day, but, while the morning crept by slowly, the afternoon was very busy which made time fly.  Also I managed to work on the fence for a short time before and after volunteering.

On Wednesday I was scheduled to volunteer planting trees at Cypress Gardens in the morning.  I don't usually prefer these kind of volunteer activities, mainly because I feel like I have similar things I can do in my own yard, but I saw an opportunity - I was getting into Cypress Gardens for free, I was getting lunch, and I was planning to spend the afternoon exploring the swamp.  There was a lot of walking to sites where we were going to plant these trees - they were starting a fruit orchard and we were planting these, mostly bare root, trees in a couple of different locations.  The dozen or more volunteers made short work of the plantings and we were fed lunch.  Afterward I spend a couple of hours walking the four plus miles of trails through the cypress swamps.  All of the signs telling you to watch out for alligators became a little unnerving, but I only heard one the whole time I was there.

I thought I would be completely free to do other things by Thursday, but I spent a little more time on the fence, reaching the point of almost finishing the gate.  By the evening, I felt like the week was almost over, but in reality I have three whole days left - plenty of time to do a few more things around the house...

Two of those three days are gone now without much to show for it - at least around the house.  I never really took a whole day off the entire week, so that's what happened on Friday.  It was a good idea too - the cold and flu that I had missed when it happened at my house earlier this year landed at my feet Thursday night.  Luckily I'm only talking about a cold.  It hasn't been bad, but I wish I didn't have it - and I go back to work on Monday.  So, Saturday, after it warmed up, I was able to finish the gate, so the chickens will have a smaller area to call their own now.  I do have a few more details to finish - cut and attach boards so the gate looks like the rest of the fence, and block off a small area between the garage and the fence.  I also have to remove our clothesline that now crosses the fence and put up an umbrella-style one.  I'm in the process of running fishing line over the entire area to deter any hawk attacks as well.  I've heard this a number of places - I hope it works.  Another possible long-term goal is to put up additional rows of fence boards to make it look more like a fence.

More on the outcome of the fence later.