Do turkey vultures kill chickens?

[centrarchid]

I am a scientist and recognize studies / trials do not show all possible situations. The studies cited do not exclude possibility of turkey vultures being predators, they simply do not provide positive evidence for it occuring. Also read back through thread, no one suggested turkey vultures attack and kill chickens.

 

[kara_leigh]

Is there any easy way to tell hawks and vultures apart when they are flying high in the sky? I'm from the city, just moved to the country, and we didn't have vultures or hawks flying around where I'm from. We already had a hawk get one of our chicks (she was around 7 weeks old or so at the time) but we didn't see it happen. I see big birds flying in the sky over our property all the time, but I honestly have no idea if it is something I should be worried about or not.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Short-term recommendation is to purchase a feild guide for birds of North America. Get one that shows oultine of birds in flight and flight pattern. It will help you key in on characteristics other than color and size which are not always reliable from a distance. Carry the book with you when piddling about yard and attempt to identify all birds you encounter. You will be training your brain how to determine species at a glance. May help you manage your landscape for poultry and wildlife.

Generally speaking, hawks when seen flying high overhead are not at that time threat to your poultry regrdless of their species. More often than not they are displaying to others hawks be they same species of not. When they are flying low through or below tree canopy or perching is when they are on hunt.

Vultures (turkey and black) seem to rile up most chickens dispite not being real threat. With vultures look for and undersized head. Hawks and eagles appear to have larger head and neck region, especially due to the their hackle feathers. Bald and golden (latter very rare in Missouri) also appear to have a longer tail and fly with wings held more flat. Seeing birds yourself does much more to help you learn differences. Learning process is generally fun.

I do not know where you are located in Missouri but pressure from hawks likely reduced due to ongoing cicada hatch. Hawks in my area eating cicadas like just about anything else that eats meat but that is soon to close and hawks will resume targeting regular fair. Coopers which are a lot more common that sightings indicate will go after chicks and some red-tailed hawks will go after same plus adults, especially hens without access to cover and roosters to provide some level of protection when cover present. I seldom loose free range birds to hawks but neighbors get hammered by same birds that fly over my place. All sorts of connsiderations go into whether hawks will come after your poultry as a food source.

 

[epeloquin]

Quote:
If you go to allaboutbirds.org and bring up Turkey vultures it will tell you what they look like, the nuances of their flight and how to recognize them from other similar looking birds. They can be mistaken for Black Vultures and even some hawk species. Where i live we have Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks and people often mistake the Turkey Vulture for the other birds of prey. This site will be helpful to you.

 

[epeloquin]

Quote:
Actually, you did. Under the heading "Do turkey vultures kill chickens?" you said...

Turkey vultures will occasionally take live prey. When we cut hay and make windrows, cottontail rabbit nest are exposed. The turkey vultures and sometimes bald eagles then start walking about and pulling baby bunnies out of nest to eat them.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Actually, you did. Under the heading "Do turkey vultures kill chickens?" you said...

Turkey vultures will occasionally take live prey. When we cut hay and make windrows, cottontail rabbit nest are exposed. The turkey vultures and sometimes bald eagles then start walking about and pulling baby bunnies out of nest to eat them.

Mark reference to killing chickens in bold. I do not see it.

 

[AGoodKing]

Well, they haven't eaten any of my chickens, yet. The birds are scared of them though. From everything I've read, and this has to do with BLACK vultures and NOT particularly TURKEY vultures, they tend to eat live things that can't get away, i.e. baby animals pretty much. As we all know, chickens are fast, even the chicks, if you have ever seen a chick run like crazy to go hop inside mama's feathers, you'll know what I mean. So unless your bird is petrified by fear, it will run away and find cover. Vultures can't pick them up and carry them away either, unless the use their beak. Now on the other hand, Hawks, Eagles, Owls, 'Possums, Racoons, Foxes, Coyotes and the neighbors dog will take them. Occasionally, the neighbor too! You can generally figure out who dunnit by the manner in which they are killed, i.e. just the head eaten, just the middle eaten, comepletely gone etc. So you do have to watch out for them. If you provide good cover, bushes next to the house, trees and things, they will have a place to run to. At night, LOCK THEM UP! Put the coop, house or whatever in a covered enclosure, that can keep out foxes, 'possums and racoons, which hunt at night. A chain link pen with a cover will do fine. For some years, I had a roost and nest boxes inside a chicken-wired barn stall, every night I would close the door and open it in the morning. Now they have 7x7x12 dog pen connected to an 8x8x4 pen with a screen canopy. With two roosters to fight off any daytime predators as well. I need to post a picture of this pen, it's quite clever the way it's put together with the coop on top of the shorter fencing

 

[epeloquin]

Quote:
Actually, you did. Under the heading "Do turkey vultures kill chickens?" you said...

Turkey vultures will occasionally take live prey. When we cut hay and make windrows, cottontail rabbit nest are exposed. The turkey vultures and sometimes bald eagles then start walking about and pulling baby bunnies out of nest to eat them.

Mark reference to killing chickens in bold. I do not see it.

Whatever...know-it-all.

You responded to a thread entitled Do turkey vultures kill chickens? and your first sentence was "Turkey vultures will occasionally take live prey." Uhhh...that is a little bit of 2 + 2 = 4. If you weren't trying to warn the poster about the potential danger to chickens then what was the purpose of your post!? When you respond to a thread with this title and your first sentence warns against TVs taking live prey then everyone who reads it is going to interpret it the same way. Otherwise, what in the world was the purpose of posting at all!? You certainly didn't tell the poster that TVs DON'T take chickens. That's the whole subject of the thread for crying out loud!!

 

[epeloquin]

Quote:
You're exactly right. Turkey Vultures are not a danger to anyone's chickens. All the data, scientific and anecdotal shows that they are the strictest carrion eaters but they are often mistaken for the Black vulture which, as you point out, will take smaller, live prey. My girls are locked up every night and do not freerange unless I am in the yard and I have a rather suburban coop. Taking no chances here!!

As for them being scared, we live just a couple miles from Westover Air Reserve Base which is home base for a lift wing of C-5 Galaxy cargo planes. They are HUGE and often fly low. You should see my girls run when one of them comes winging by!! Seriously though, it is very interesting to see their response when crows come by. My girls do not like crows!! One time they were more behind their coop when four or five crows came by squawking and they ran for cover. On another occasion they were scratching in the leaf litter around a bush when some crows came by and they all froze and did not move until those crows left. It was really interesting to watch. They definitely keep an eye on the sky which is good because we do have a healthy population of red-tailed hawks as well as a couple nesting bald eagles.

 

[InTheBeginning]

IF AFTER ALL THIS TIME THEY HAVEN'T KILLED ANY, ONE THING IS CERTAIN, THEY WILL MATE WITH THEM, THAT'S WHY IN SOME PLACE YOU SEE VERY LARGE CHICKENS, THIS SICKENS ME, KNOWING THAT I COULD BE EATING A HALF CHICKEN AND HALF UNCLEAN VULTURE.