[chrismahon]

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.

[Bangbang]

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...

[chairmanphil]

bad press i say too BB!

[chairmanphil]

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!

[Polished Arrow]

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.

[jaykay]

Cluckingham Palace

 

[MAK]

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.

[Foobar]

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?

[Sylvia]

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.