Can a Kestrel Cause Harm to FUll Grown Chickens?

[amazondoc]

Hey, those steeenkin nasty kestrels steal grasshoppers and mice straight outta the mouths of yer darlin chickies. Blast em to heck!!


Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

[ILoveJoe]

Quote:
I would be interested in doing that. Do you have plans for the box?

 

[mikeksfarmer]

I have put up many Kestral boxes. In the past I put them up in Power plant sub stations to discourage house sparrows from nesting in transformers. It saved consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It also encouraged a native specie to thrive. Most boxes are made of 1x lumber. 1x10"or 12" work great. Kestrals need at least 10" deep below the hole. A 2.5" to 3" wide hole is all you need. Put just 1 handful of saw dust in the bottom. No more. Drill a couple of small vent holes in the sides at the top. Try to put a hinge so you can clean it out some where. Door or roof. Kestrals are blasters the young will paint the inside white with fecal material. Put the box in the open on a pole if you have one. 10' to 15' up faceing south our East. A dead tree works. Some times you can get success with the side of a barn too. A hing door helps to dump squirrels or starlings. If you get a pair of Kestrils and their four offspring, at one mouse a day they could eat 135 pounds of mice and grasshoppers each year. How much is your time worth setting traps, buying mouse traps, Or loss of grain eaten by mice and house sparrows. A screech owl is the night time equivalent. Same box but in a tree Apple orchard is ideal. Neither would ever go after a medium for full size chicken. maybe on a chick but you would have them in a pen any way. Why not get night and day protection! both are awesome animals and a perfect addition to any chicken yard!

 

[amazondoc]

Hey, great idea!

I've got lots of screeches here on my new property, but I haven't seen any kestrels. I'd love to encourage some. I'll have to look into nest boxes!

 

[Attack Chicken]

I had one sitting my friends tree next door. I got a picture of her and I'll post a picture of her soon

 

[sandypaws]

thanks mike.. i think more than one of us will be doing that..

 

[ILoveJoe]

Quote:
I'll have to try to get a box built for the Kestrel.

We used to have a little screech owl hanging around:

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Nice pic of the screech Owl. It shows the only down fall I have ever heard of about screech owls, Song birds. Some of them do love to eat other birds. Not so much chickens but in this pic a blue bird. Still I would rather have a screech owl eat my blue bird than my neighbors cat. On my farm here a lid blew off the top of a screech owl box and barred owls moved in. I saved all my trapped mice in the freezer in ziplock. When I cold see they had young in the nest I threw my frozen mice in. A small investmint into future mouse traps.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Oh yes one more thing. I found some old desk drawrs in a dump once. I closed them up with some plywood cut a hole with my Jig saw and hung them up. Three of four ended up with screech owls. Be creative most of us have something around a little bigger than a bread box and made of wood that could be modified for and owl or a kestral.

 

[Attack Chicken]

Here's a pic of the girl thats been hanging around my place. She is very pretty