Dose anyone else feel this way?

[aprophet]

Quote:
I do not see many turkey vultures here we have mostly black vultures

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black_vulture/lifehistory

most folks do not stay in the woods very much they imagine just because they do not get to see something it simply dare not happen LOL, I have seen red fox tear cats into and bobcats eat fawns as well as yotes eating fawns I regularly watch Ospreys hunt and harvest fish if someone would have told me vultures do not hunt. I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BELIEVED THEM UNTIL I HAD SEEN DIFFERENT !

They do not really kill they just capture with their bill/beak and start eating most of the prey is smaller rats mice young rabbits other birds we had one guy on the local news because quiet a population buzzards live at his place

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

good to know We used to live surrounded by woods last summer they cut them down its like an meadow now

 

[cafarmgirl]

Quote:
Flying south and circling are two different behaviors. Circling is a behavior of a vulture, not a hawk. What the OP saw were vultures and vultures pose no threat to any chickens......unless it's already dead that is.

Last week the corn field next to us was chopped for silage, 300+ acre field, lots of mice and rats coming out of that field. When this happens the hawks always show up from all around the area. We counted 12 in the air at one point, couple more on nearby telephone pole's. Mostly red tail's, a few other's. And yes, I was close enough to be able to identify what I saw. I have taken ornithology classes, I know the difference between a hawk and vulture. Hawk's absolutely will circle an area when they know a meal is likely and it is not that uncommon to see more then one if something is going on to draw their interest.

As far as vultures, I agree they are not a threat to grown chickens but they can and will take a chick or other small critter given the opportunity. They don't need talons to do it, generally just the act of grabbing some small thing like a chick or mouse with that huge, powerful beak does the job.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

There are feilds down the road from us and there are now meadows behind us with rabbits ... ect

 

[RBahmer]

I have hawks fly over all the time and they stop in the trees on my fenceline but I never worry about my children (my chickens). When we built our original coop and run my husband put heavy small fence over the windows so no coons or anything can get in and when we did the run it is completly covered and we bent the bottom of the fence over and buried it so nothing can dig under it. We have a steel door going into the run from the outside. Too solid for a animal to dig through. And on the coop itself we have a steel screen door with heavy small wire over the window. We lock them in every night and I have been fortunate enough to not lose a single one to a predator. Our dog can't even get in.

 

[KandiandJerry]

Yes, they definately make me nervous when I see them....we have alot of chickens (mostly bantams) but we have a few Dominiques that free range in the yard and barnlot....I almost panick when I see them...

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

these really scared us for a while. DH finally realized they were as territorial about the chipmunks and fat fluffy squirrels as they were curious about whether our little chickens were food.

We spread peanut butter on the post where our birdfeeder was, and the squirrels didn't even notice the hawk coming, they were so into scraping peanut butter off the post.

Technically, that's a bird feeder, too, says DS.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Haha yep we feed the bird an lot in the winter

last winter we had crows

. The sqirrels love our yard ,trees, pecans, and walnuts

 

[MuranoFarms]

A turkey vulture killed my call ducks last spring. I had just put the calls in a new pen and went inside the house for maybe 20 minutes when the guineas started freaking out. I ran over to the ducks and it was still in the pen with them. We put up deer netting and nothing has gotten in the pen since then, but yes.......vultures will kill.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

sorry bout that poor duckies