4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[eek i saw a mouse]

We have had our girls for a few months now and they are now truly part of our family!

 

One of our neighbours has mentioned that she has seen a bird of prey hanging around recently - a Kestrel she says but I haven't seen it and wouldn't know anyway!

 

Should I be worried - do birds of prey represent any threat to chickens - they are free ranging most of the day but locked up at night and when we are out.

 

Any advice or experiences would be very helpful!

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I can't say one way or the other for certain, but we have buzzards round here & they took rather too much notice of our garden a few weeks ago, so I've covered the Bufflings run with raspberry netting to at least slow the beggar down should it decide one of my babies is lunch and Blossom's run is under a tulip tree & is mostly protected (we hope ) by that as she's a tiddler too. I've worked on the theory that all the big girls are safe as they are much bigger.............but maybe that's just me being paranoid

 

Sha x

[Valkyrie]

Well we get buzzards a fair bit, but our girls aren't at all bothered. We sometimes get a red kite and the first time they saw it, it was all panic and diving for cover, but since it's been back a few times they aren't bothered by it any more. When we went to the Devon Traditional Breed Centre a couple of weeks ago there were buzzards at very close quarters to the birds, but they didn't bother with the chickens and the chickens weren't worried either. Ours tend to bok with the sparrowhawk around, but I think that's mainly due to the other garden birds all shouting out warnings. I don't think the hawk will go for big chickens - unless it wears a truss.

[ajayb]

We have a lot of buzzards and other BoP around here and I, too, was alarmed when they appeared to be hanging around a lot ... However, one of my daughters is a museum curator and checked with her Natural History colleagues who said not to worry. The chooks & ducks don't really seem bothered by them and spend most of their time chasing crows, magpies & squirrels away from their food!

[smokiechicken1969]

i have noticed that my cockerel will always make a bit of a fuss if another bird decides to go near the garden, but he always makes his 'danger' noise when a kestrel or buzzard flies over.

 

how does he know? natuaral instinct i guess? do chickens automatically know this type of bird is more of a danger to them or am i giving chooks too much credit?

 

i have worried too as have two smallish bantams. glad that the opinion on here is that they should be ok