Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Yellow House Farm]

The human caretakers. There are times when predators are more apt to strike. Being aware of those time helps with management decisions.

 

[Arielle]

The human caretakers. There are times when predators are more apt to strike. Being aware of those time helps with management decisions.

DH is A wildlife person-- late summer for fledging hawks and when the coyotes have pups to feed. WE have run off a fox by screaming like a lunatic and chasing it. Wish I had THAT on video!! lol

 

[catdaddyfro]

So they are imports? Well, that's interesting. Breeders should try to work to get them into the Standard, then. I think it's going to take a lot, but that's OK. It's the fattening that makes a Bresse a Bresse like Dorking. They are, so to speak, the Dorking of France. I just visited the "American Bresse" website. There's more than a little propaganda there, but, if they're real Bresse fowl, they'd be on par with Dorkings, Houdans, et al. for meat quality.

White is fine for free-ranging. If a predator wants a chicken, there isn't a plumage pattern that's going to save it. Chickens aren't all that sneaky, they're not hard to spot. I wouldn't be surprised if in a mixed flock the white is taken first, but that's not so much because they're white but because they are a focus point over the others. In the absence of a white bird, the focus point would shift, but the predator wouldn't be fooled nor deterred by a pattern. Our Dorkings free-range all the time. Our experience has been that it is far more important to be aware of predator patterns.

True, out of all my vast array and assortments or colors/patterns I have out free ranging, I do loose mostly the whites due to predation issues. I to suspect after all of the white(sore thumbs sticking out) were gone that the predator(s) would go for the next easier target it could readily focus in on. Easier could be, for example; (ill, lame, even the not so brilliant/smarter sorts too, these are types that predation is naturally supposed to rid the flock of anyhow in a real world/more natural environment) all these besides a lesser cammoed out color pattern than the others also.


Jeff

 

[finnfur]

True, out of all my vast array and assortments or colors/patterns I have out free ranging, I do loose mostly the whites due to predation issues. I to suspect after all of the white(sore thumbs sticking out) were gone that the predator(s) would go for the next easier target it could readily focus in on. Easier could be, for example; (ill, lame, even the not so brilliant/smarter sorts too, these are types that predation is naturally supposed to rid the flock of anyhow in a real world/more natural environment) all these besides a lesser cammoed out color pattern than the others also.


Jeff

I agree with both - I think its all opportunity ; I have lost two to Redtail hawks . I have all colors and they took black both times.
The other side of the color selection theory in my opinion is what color is the normal prey. In my area its most likely Wild Turkey. We certainly don't have a lot of white birds. Maybe Seagulls at the dump.
So my theory is back to opportunity. LOL
I However have not had any problem since I made these


This is Grey ScareHawk -Caught it streaking on back lawn


This is his brother Green ScareHawk on the job in the Enet

Simple to make with Two plastic electric fence posts - short piece of 2x2 [body] short piece of 1x2 [arms]
and a milk jug - I move them every couple of days - Its worked so far . [ deck screwws to put it together

 

[Yellow House Farm]

You find these effective?

 

[finnfur]

You find these effective?

LOL I don't know but haven't had a loss since we lost the two chickens and put these out. I try to keep light weight clothing and CD 1/2 discs to arms with fish string. Gives it constant movement even in the lightest wind. Sometimes I see light weight hats at the Goodwill and tie wrap them on. Christmas we had Santa hats.
I might add we usually have wind here on a hill top. If they are hungry enough I would guess there is no guarantee . Might be luck so far but hope it continues. LOL
They are very east to move . To re-plant just step the two "feet" in the ground.
I move them almost daily so they don't become part of the landscape.
May not be a positive deterrent but we having a lot of fun with it and its not labor intensive.
They only other Hawk deterrent we have is Crows. We have a couple rookeries on the place and they gang up to run the Hawks off. I have even seen them run Buzzards this time of year when they are raising young.
I imagine there will be another sacrifice to the predator Gods again but maybe this will keep the numbers down .
I looked at it as no cost try - the Efence posts are still good - everything else is scrap/trash

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Interesting! We don't have hawk problems throughout the year, but we do have to deal with hawk migration season.

 

[finnfur]

The two we lost was in the early fall. Late afternoon , two Tuesdays in a row. Presuming same hawk but not sure .We saw the Hawks leaving the kill when spooked and they were Redtails.
The first one was a Black broiler Cockerel about 12 weeks old - didn't look like much of a fight all the feathers were at the kill site. The second was a full grown Plymouth Rock hen.
I think she fought longer as there was a 25 yard string of feathers from in front of the coop to the corner of the Enet. When I went to feed/collect eggs all the chickens were huddled i the farthest corner from the kill . They could have gone under the coop trailer or in the coop. Not to smart LOL . Didn't get any more eggs for two days then slowly started back.
Traumatized LOL

 

[catdaddyfro]

Interesting! We don't have hawk problems throughout the year, but we do have to deal with hawk migration season.

Yeah we have gobs of hawks here in La. all year long and even more so when the migration is going on. I think that all the hawks(at least the Red-tails) in North America stop in here for breeding, hatching, and rearing their young and they stay busy constantly, it keeps the crows, mockingbirds and jays(oh and the dogs too I've trained them for hawk deterrence also) something to do also.

Jeff

 

[capayvalleychick]

Yeah we have gobs of hawks here in La. all year long and even more so when the migration is going on. I think that all the hawks(at least the Red-tails) in North America stop in here for breeding, hatching, and rearing their young and they stay busy constantly,

Here, also. There is a Redtail who often is on the power pole along our road, in full view of the pasture coop. More, smaller hawks are in my neighbor's eucalyptus grove - right next to the mature Delaware's coop & runs. I've only had 2 losses to hawks - a young birds and a chick - in 13 years. I keep immature birds up close to the house, where there are bushes & trees for cover. There has been a new (maybe young) hawk circling the sky above the yard where all my youngsters bred this year, and the Del chicks from Kathy are ranging. I keep hoping that the ground squirrels are tastier fare than chickens. We've even had eagles this year. I saw one drop right down out of the sky, sounded like a jet. It flew right over my lambs & chickens and landed in my neighbor's lot. There were buzzards eating the neighbor's lamb, that had been killed by coyotes. The eagle picked that up and flew off with it.
I've been blessed that I don't have the predator issues that my neighbors do. I have electric fences & dogs. I'm not sure that's what's protecting my flock from the hawks, though.