fluffyfeet Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 A friend of mine has her horses stabled at a placed that has lots of free ranging chickens. Unfortunately the local buzzards have taken a liking to chicken recently and have started coming down onto the chickens like peregrine falcons, promptly killing and eating them. As buzzard numbers have increased a lot of late, certainly by us anyway, and food is probably quite scarce after the recent cold spelll, please be aware of this especially if your birds are not under cover, i.e. pottering in the garden unsupervised. I have bantams which would be very easy prey to a buzzard and have noticed one sitting in next doors conifers a couple of times over the last few days. Dawn x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 thats a shame I'd have thought that chicks or growers would be at risk but not full size chooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chestnutmare Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 We think a buzzard nearly killed a chicken here in the past but it was nursed back to health. We keep an eye on our free ranging duck if we see a bird of pray around... infact we've spotted a buzzard 'eyeing up' the duck next to the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madchickenlady Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I have seen some small birds of prey near me, but none that are big enough to take on a chook. How worrying for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia W Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 We have kites overhead every day. We also have a family of sparrow hawks who eat the local pigeons. I'm not so worried about the kites, who prefer carrion, but I keep my little banties locked up as they are definitely pigeon- sized! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffyfeet Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 I was shocked when I was first told about this, and said it was more likely a fox. It was only when my friend stated she had seen it herself that I thought Dawn x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
