Are your chickens safe from buzzards?
I’ve shortened the story here, but basically the other day I was looking out of the window watching our three chickens. I then sat down at the pc. Within a minute there was an almighty commotion in the garden – the chickens were squawking and flapping noisily. We hastily went outside (a 30 second dash) as we are always mindful of any foxes that may be in the area. One of our chickens was gone. But where? There was no sign of her, no feathers, nothing. Within a minute she had completely disappeared without a trace.
A couple of minutes late three buzzards hovered very low over the garden and then swooped away. We were convinced that one of them had pinched our Dolly and they were coming back for more.
The goods news is we found Dolly about half a mile down the track. We’re guessing she was a bit weighty for the buzzard and he dropped her.
I know this is all guesswork and coincidence, and you probably think we’re barking, but we’re confident we’re right in our thinking.
The day after the buzzards had taken Dolly, they were back again, at roughly the same time. Hovering at tree height, peering into the garden.
We decided that we needed to protect our chickens the best way we could. The first thing we did was to make a scarecrow and attach it to a coat hanger, which in turn we placed on the washing line. In the wind it travels up and down the line, and hopefully is some kind of deterrent.
We also did as much research on the Internet we could and someone suggested we hang a mirror-ball in the garden in the hope that the reflective light will put off the buzzards.
The most buzzards we’ve had hovering overhead at any one time is eight.
We got in touch with the RSPB to ask their thoughts / advice. You can read their reply here.
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I’d love to hear from anyone who has had any similar experiences or any thoughts on this subject. Please do leave a reply below.
We live in rural France and have a limited number of chickens, but abundant buzzads.
I have long since used old CDs as a bird repellant.
I tie a single string to each cd securing it through the hole in the middle then suspend the CDs from branches protuding poles or brackets . As the air is very rarely perfectly still, the CD is always twisting back and forth, the light reflecs off the shiny side of the CD causing an irratic flashing which seems to deter all birds. We use it on our fruit trees as well and rarely have fruit or the buds attacked by birds.
I am convinced that one of our birds at least, possibly more, have been taken by Buzzards as occasionally they disappear without trace. The last time I found just a couple of feathers, but close together not spread out, & my husband has seen the buzzards overhead, so definitely would not discount this as a possibility for your bird.
Hi Jo and Clive – thanks for your comments. The CD idea is great! One thing I forgot to mention was that our cat (who is protective of the chickens) was also outside at the time of the incident. He was cowering as close to the floor as he could get and was staring up at the sky. When he hears the buzzards closeby now, he looks up and comes inside rather quickly.
Hi Jo and Clive
You are lucky to live where there are buzzards.
I have had a (probably young inexperienced)kestrel stoop on some baby chicks running with their mum. Fortunately they were in an ark, and the bird landed hard on the wire netting which it hadn’t noticed, looking very ruffled poor little thing. I also worry a bit about sparrow hawks when the chicks first start to roost in the trees, but I think the proximity of the mum puts them off. They have never taken a chick but they tend to shoot across around roosting time. They almost always take collar doves, and there is typically a ring of feathers left on the ground. Nor do they ever take chicks, or anything, off the ground; it’s not their modus operandi, which is a good job.
For valuable birds why not use pheasant netting over the run to be completely safe from larger hawks and buzzards?