Chicken drama

[DC]

In the fall this years young hawks are moving around and learning the ropes. Chickens are easy.

[Zuma]

he he

[JW_Halverson]

Could be an osprey, but that would be extremely weird. 98% of osprey diet is fish, the rest is a rare snake taken off the water or a stray duckling off the water. Osprey seem to turn off all hunting instinct over land, they won't even pick up a fish flopping on the ground as easy a pickings at that would be.

[DC]

I know that first year eagles have longer flight feathers by about an inch. Makes them look quite a bit bigger. I don't know if all birds of prey are like that. JW?

[upstatenybowyer]

I've been doing some research on the BOP in this area and I'm 99% certain I've identified the beast...

Northern Goshawk. Melissa and I both got a good look at her (females are significantly bigger) and we both agree it must be what we saw. They are known for taking chickens, the size is a match and the coloration fits perfectly. What'ya think JW? 

[DC]

I had one of those when I was into falconry a long time ago. I actually caught it in the field beside where I live now. It was taking the neighbours chickens . I had her eating off the glove and the telephone company sent me out of town for 4 weeks. I turned her loose. Beautiful bird. Design perfection. They're like cougars, lots of them around but you never see them.

[Buffalogobbler]

Upstate,
We do have Northern Goshawks in the Western New York area, I was dive bombed by one once that had a nest near a trail I was using, also on a side note Bald Eagles are becoming some what common in our area, and there are nesting ospreys along the Niagara river and in the Kinzua area.

Kevin

[bjrogg]

Once upon a time, we had a neighbor who was a ag teacher. She had chickens, rabbits peacocks and other assorted critters. They were good neighbors but their animals sometimes escaped and the chickens usually ran around my yard more than theirs. Come to think of it the peacocks never went to their yard and loved to roost on my tractors. "I'm not huge fan of peacocks ". Anyway they moved away and long after they were gone their critters still remained. There was one chicken in perticular I remember. He was beautiful and very fast. I had a small woodlot behind my house and lots of other trees in my yard. Whenever he felt threatened he was almost instantly in the thick stuff. I gained a bit of respect for him, having eluded the many predators I knew were after him. One day there was a snow owl on my electric pole by the road. The next morning a pile of scattered feathers was all that remained. I kinda miss him.
Bjrogg

[upstatenybowyer]

BJ, that's sad man! I never thought I'd have much affection for these chickens, but seeing that girl traumatized like she was after the attack, my heart went out to her.

DC, thanks for confirming my suspicions about the goshawk. Asking questions on PA never disappoints. With so many folks w/ so much knowledge and experience, you can't go wrong. 

Thanks Kevin. 

[bjrogg]

It's all part of nature and life in general. Living on a farm all my life I've experienced plenty of death of my animals. I've come to except it. Doesn't mean I like it our am not effected by it. Just means I except it. Some people think we don't care about our animals. Nothing could be further from the truth. We spend more time talking care of our animals than our family's. They usually live in newer barns than our houses to.
Bjrogg

[jeffp51]

I've been doing some research on the BOP in this area and I'm 99% certain I've identified the beast...

Northern Goshawk. Melissa and I both got a good look at her (females are significantly bigger) and we both agree it must be what we saw. They are known for taking chickens, the size is a match and the coloration fits perfectly. What'ya think JW?

That is a beautiful bird.  I would raise chickens just to watch it come and take them--and buy my buffalo wings at the store.

[Zuma]

My area is loaded with chicken houses. On my way to town a truck loaded with
chickens was speeding past me in the opposite direction knocking down tree
branches as it swerved, narrowly missing me. About an hour later I came back
down the road and saw a very unusual site. It looked like it had snowed in
one spot off the right side of the road. Then it dawned on me. It was a ton of
chickens perched on a driveshaft and tires of the overturned chicken truck.
Local farmers fed off them for a month. So did the owls.
Zuma

[upstatenybowyer]

It's gotta be tough being a chicken... you're just so tasty, and everyone wants a piece of you! 

[bjrogg]

I'll take a breast and a thigh.lol
Bjrogg

[upstatenybowyer]

Edit: Once a predator of any kind gets a taste of chicken, it will count on getting dinner there every day till the last chicken is gone. When I got chickens, predators came from everywhere. Owls were the worst. I called a game warden to discuss how to solve the problem. He told me very bluntly that if I wanted to keep chickens, I would have to pen them up, because I could not do anything to "HIS" owls. Then he staked me out for a solid month watching every night for me to do something to his owls, but I had not just fallen off a turnip truck. Eventually it became just too much work and aggravation to keep them confined and predators and neighbors' dogs finished them off. One of the last things that happened was that a huge rattlesnake came in through the rusted tin at the bottom of my chicken house and killed a pile of half-grown chickens. It ate five (yes, I always had a count on them) of them and left the others lying there. You think I am lying, but I later found a rattlesnake big enough to do that within 50 feet of where that chicken house had been.

In Texas state and federal laws make it high risk to harm any predatory bird of any kind.

Edit: I know that a snake did that because of the slithering track it left in the sand.

That is one heck of a story man! I would have had a hard time not going after a snake that size, especially if it ate my chickens! Just think of the backings you could get!