The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: midnight chick on March 28, 2012, 09:01:35 am
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Does any one know if buzzards take chickens? We have one that has been circling the area for the last week and fear for our 16 week old blackrock chicks that free range, although they spend time under things quite alot
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not a full grown but i would be careful with youngsters, but i think it would be unlikely. round my way we have buzzards and kites and they don't seem interested in anything alive, except crow babies bless them. thought they were vultures!
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Buzzards are more of a scavenger than a hunter - they are commonly seen digging for worms in fields. We have a lot around us and they are probably encouraged closer to the house and duck pen as we have a pet buzzard!! I have never seen them go for the adult ducks but I do keep the duckling inside for a while till the are strong not really for the fear of the buzzards more for the odd sparrowhawk that will pass by - I've seen them go for red leg partridge. So in conclusion I would say they are pretty safe at 16 weeks - the buzzard is probably just enjoying the good weather.
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Friend down at Crudie has lost a few bantams to a Buzzard, he had to keep the rest in closed. I lost an indian runner duck last year, she was about 4 months old but quite small.
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I've lost a white call drake. And they take wild rabbits I think.
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When the sparrow hawk cruises by here all our poultry, young and old, scatter under cover. We have not lost chicks to the buzzards but we have lost them to crows and gulls, not to mention the stoat...and the fox...and rats. I would think that at 16 weeks the Black Rocks would be safe, if only because they will hide.
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We have many buzzards and kite but no losses yet.
Last summer we had about 5 buzzards that seemed a bit threatening ..... always swooping low over the hens and sitting watching from nearby trees. The gamekeepers wife asked me if Id seen them as they were visiting her too. She said that she had seen one take a pheasant poult that was as big as my friesian fowl , so to keep a look out. They never took any hens, not even my tiny peekins.
I have been told by locals that they have taken fowl but no problems for me yet. Perhaps if they are very hungry but think they are mainly carrion feeders.
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in the hills - it sounds like that was a family of newly fledged young ones. We get them like that, sitting around hoping a meal will drop into their beaks. We call them all Aldrin....Buzz Aldrin? ::)
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We have buzzards in the neighbourhood. Lost a cockerel the other week which we suspect was killed by a bird of prey but no hard evidence.
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Buzzards are more likely to take live prey than Kites. Kites are lazy beggars and would rather their dinner is nicely dead. Saying that, Buzzards would still rather have carrion, it doesn't move much or fight back!
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Buzzards are exceptionally lazy birds of prey - that's why they are recommended as a beginner bird, your less likely to loose it as the bird see's something living - looks back at owner and thinks dinner delivered to my door. It's why they end up in trap's, scavenging for food (not legal - but it's done, I was given one by Perth Police to rehabilitate but on seeing it's injuries it had to be pts - they'd not wanted to open the box!!) And to be perfectly honest I really can't see even the largest female buzzard with hungry chicks taking on a cockerel
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we have a female Goshawk on the fields by my land and she is a killer and i think would take on a chicken. but never seen a Buzzard take anything alive!
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Buzzards will take anything they get i have seen them on telegraph poles fishing for young pheasant poults in pens , i have also seen them drop on partridges and peafowl chicks although that one got a shock as when she was sitting on top starting to pluck, the pea hen flew in landed on it and knocked seven bells of sh*t out of it before it flew off.
Hungry Birds are bolder than those with plenty of alternative prey
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Wow, a goshawk. Now if I thought I could fly one of those I'd definitely be into falconry!
I agree, five buzzards together will be a family, we get them too in the summer, otherwise just singles or pairs.
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Wow, a goshawk. Now if I thought I could fly one of those I'd definitely be into falconry!
I agree, five buzzards together will be a family, we get them too in the summer, otherwise just singles or pairs.
she is something to watch, all the living rabbits are clever lucky ones!
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Buzzards will certainly take fully grown chickens. A local poultry farmer loses more of his free range chickens to buzzards than foxes. A buzzard strike is from above and will be seen as damage to the back when the chicken has been hit and the tallons have torn the skin off.
We have three circling our Orchard on a regular basis, looking for rabbits I hope. But the trees provide sufficient cover for our chickens and would prevent them taking off again anyway. All the trees will be in leaf in a few weeks so even better.
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If there high in the sky circling...there riding the thermals no interest in food.
They are generally lazy and prefer carion and worms than large prey.
I have seen sparrowhawks take bigger prey than buzzards.
We have at least 12 nesting pairs within sight of our property
and never lost so much as a duckling.
As former Rapture Rescue Members who rehabilitated injured birds, and spent years studing them the 'Buzzard' always gets the bad press!
Oh! I have my own buzzard and a bengal eagle owl...
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bad press i say too BB!
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something i would say is since the kites have come back over Oxfordshire there has been a massive reduction in crows and jays. this seems to have led to an increase in smaller birds of pray. i think these little raptors are far more likely to be taking small chickens than a Buzzard. they are taking the rabbit population apart round my way. far far less of them than there used to be. can't wait for the Hobbies to come back this year, had a few house martins fly over couple of days ago so the swallows must be close!
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Here in the Forest of Dean we have Buzzards over our chickens daily as they have a nest in trees at the top of one of our fields. While the buzzards have never tried to take one to the best of our knowledge, Marv, our rooster, marches his women quickly inside Cluckingham Palace if he sees them circling or flying anywhere nearby.
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Cluckingham Palace
;D
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Opinion seems split over the buzzards. We have a lot around us but I have never seen them over our chicken or duck areas - though they will land in the field for frogs etc.
The kites do circle when we have young birds but the ducks always seem to have an eye "up" for them and will sound the alert. No losses yet.
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Re-opening an old topic I know, but...
I had one of my hens killed by a buzzard last week, and two others injured (they are ok though). Most annoying as now I have to build them a new run that is covered over - I currently use electric netting to keep them in and the foxes out, but my OH won't let me put the hens back out now for fear of them all being picked off.
Incidentally, it was the day after all the adjoining farmers cut their hay fields .. so I'm suspecting that the buzzards normal "dinner plate" was empty so it looked elsewhere.
Seen a huge increase in buzzards over the past couple of years (and crows and magpies)...perhaps I need to get myself a kite? :)
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We have a lot of buzzards here, some so bold you can walk almost up to them, sitting on the fence before they sigh heavily and fly up a bit higher. We've never lost a chicken to them though.
If we have chicks, we fence off a bit of the run and cover it with pond netting. We use plastic rose trellis supported by yellow electric fencing stakes.