2021 - Volume #45, Issue #4, Page #20
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He Keeps Chickens Safe With Pinwheels
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It has another meaning as well since he uses simple pinwheels to chase off hawks and coyotes when he has livestock on pasture.
Wessel has chickens on two different properties that he visits each day to do chores - feed, water, collect eggs, and move the coop/fencing once a week. There were coyotes and hawks in the area, so he needed to take some preventative measures. In his research he read about the pinwheels online.
“The theory is that the reflective light messes with the birds’ eyes,” he says.
Wessel zip-ties and/or tapes the pinwheel sticks to 12-ft. long pieces of bamboo that he got from a friend. He slips the bamboo over rebar he jabs into the ground. They’re easy to pull up and move when the coop is moved. He also attaches pinwheels to the tops of mobile coops.
Wessel notes the he only lost one chicken, to a hawk, that managed to get outside the fencing. He uses a “sparkly holographic pinwheel reflective whirl pinwheels” he purchased on Amazon for about $2/each.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Andy Wessel, Glen Allen, Va. (ph 412 526-1133; pinwheelfarmrva@gmail.com).
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