Buzzards

[Help_battery_hens]

Does anyone know if a buzzard will kill a hen?

 

[Aschenfire]

No, they are carrion eaters.

 

[Help_battery_hens]

• I thought that but yesterday two were in the tree a few meters outside of my garden then they were circling my girls about 30ft above them I managed to chase them away and shut my girls up but it unnerved me a bit

 

[Aschenfire]

They are funny birds... I've seen them just sitting here and there, and circling on up-drafts for no apparent reason. Maybe for the thrill of it. If I could do that, I would. I'd not worry about scavengers around your birds.

 

[abChicken]

NEVER HEARD OF THEM BOTHERING CHICKENS HERE

 

[Mattemma]

I have turkey vultures that come and circle the yard.Keeps the hens on their toes and Jack doing his warning calls all day.They can smell the rotting flesh of an animal from miles away. I have never had them attack.Quite pretty in their own ugly way.Awesome wing span.Did you know they pee on their legs??? Protection against nasty germs in the rotten flesh they tear apart and step in,

Someone wrote about a groundhog killing their hen(rare),so I guess it IS possible but they prefer the dead stuff first.

 

[jak2002003]

They are able to kill a hen, but its very unlikely to happen as they prefer to eat dead animals, or hunt smaller things like frogs, worms, large insects and baby rabbits.

I have never heard of one killing a chicken, but probably these a very slight chance.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I never worry about them. Circling on the thermal air currents and sitting on the tree tops and staring is just what they do. It doesn't mean they are looking at your chickens.

 

[old biddie50]

Buzzards feet do not have talons but just nails so they can't carry anything off. Their beaks are not sharp to rip meat so they need the things that are "tenderized" already. Not a killing machine.

 

[Love2Homeschool]

While I've never heard of one killing a chicken, I have heard of buzzards attacking weakened animals. I've heard of several attacks on cows during calving. They will literally eat out the entire backside of the weakened cow, who then has to be killed. This has happened to my dad's cows a few times and also to the cows of a friend of ours. So I guess if they found a chicken that was already weakened or near death they might finish it off.