CDs + scarehawks

Our electric fence might keep our chicks in and ground critters out, but it is no match for the mighty hawk. We've lost two already to these birds, who live above the coop in the tall red pines. We're trying two tricks to keep the predators away... we've strung CDs across the pasture the chickens are foraging in and posted a scare-hawk. Our guide to raising chickens suggested the former method, saying that the sun and wind would move the CDs enough to scare away a hawk or other flying thing from getting too close (this method might not be successful on cloudy, still days... in fact, we lost one of our chickens on such a day with our CDs already strung). And we dressed a fence post in a scary trench coat and hat to see if it might guard our future egg-layers.