Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: grinling on May 05, 2017, 21:06
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I think I have a new top hen as her warning signal is somewhat different. 7 of them grouped together (Sooty had gone to bed), so I look out of my son's bedroom window and the Buzzard (looks bigger than a sparrowhawk and twice the size of a marran) perched on the fence.
He goes for the mice in the paddock or the farmers field.
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You do get to know their calls don't you. Mine are a bit wary of the red kites, but they are mostly scavengers. A buzzard is a bit more of a threat. I see them sometimes perched in the trees in the countryside round here, but they don't seem to venture into the built up areas.
Mine have an alarm call for cats - a collective shouting at the fence of 'clear off you - we know you are around'. Its very different from the real panic one that I have heard when a fox has got into the garden.
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Had a sparrow hawk that would sit on the fence and the hens would pretty much ignore it until one day it killed a collared dove 8ft away on my lawn.
That upset the girls for a couple of hours !
I would be concerned about a buzzard that is hanging around housing and hens , they normally go for small prey or carrion but if they have hungry chicks to feed a chicken dinner may be tempting.
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He comes here on a regular basis, but he nests in a wood area some distance away.