Hello,

 We lost one our hens today to a Buzzard. We live in West Carmarthenshire where the Buzzards are 'always' around so we see them and hear them daily.  We have had the chickens for about 4 months now and this is the first attack from the Buzzards, mainly because the chucks have been free range sticking to the trees and copse around the house. Now they are venturing out into the open a bit more , one was taken while they were resting under a bush, well two were under the bush and the other was just outside of it where as normally they would all be all under the bush.
Anyway, the Buzzard took the Hen very cleanly and only left a couple of hen feathers as evidence,  literally 20 feet away from our house and was away again with the chuck in a couple of seconds, even leaving our 'veteran'  cat with a look of shock on his face..

I was thinking 'Scarecrow' or similar as a possible Buzzard deterrent ?

Mark

One thing i have tried is to insert mirror balls or just mirrors around the roaming areas.  The bird of prey will see its reflection and retreat immediately.  I have had no trouble since.  You can buy these mirror balls from pigeon coft  Tel:0117 935 2421

If the birds are not keen on reflected light then that sounds like a great idea and I will give it a go.

We've been on constant alert since as they have been coming back regularly looking for the chucks at varying times of the day so are unpredictable where as before they used to have a regular routine. It's very noticeable how they have changed their behaviour from just flying through our small valley to actually 'loitering with intent' over and around our plot. Luckily the chucks are now very alert to how dangerous the buzzards are and hide away in the woods a lot of the time anyway but they hide very quickly once they hear the birds coming in, luckily they don't hunt siliently otherwise we would have lost more.
Have to say though that they are fascinating to watch.

Thanks for the reply.

You might just have one "rogue" buzzard, hopefully an old one that isn't quick enough to catch rabbits and may not survive the winter.  We have lots of buzzards here in Wiltshire and regularly have them in the field with the hens, they are eating worms believe it or not, a ridiculous pastime for a bird of prey.  We have had half grown poultry killed by  a goshawk which plucked and ate the back and neck whilst the prey was still on the ground, I know it's not rational but I would rather a raptor than the fox.

I havent got any advice, but can say that it is becoming increasingly more common was we recently reported on FWi. Increasing the cover by planting trees can help.

great advice as buzzards are becoming hugely common it is iminent that poultry farmers need to take measures