Hi thanks for adding me to the forum, I have a few sussex x 's for eggs, 4 English game bantams a couple of turkeys, golden and amhurst pheasants, and a few birds of prey, plus lots of dogs, Game birds are my personal favourites.
Hello from Bedfordshire
- Thread starter hawker13
- Start date
Hi Hawker13 and welcome to the Forum.
That sounds like a very interesting collection of birds you've got- especially the birds of prey, what kinds are they?
That sounds like a very interesting collection of birds you've got- especially the birds of prey, what kinds are they?
chrismahon
Well-known member
Hello Hawker13 -welcome to the forum. We have a few large owls flying past the house at night and buzzards and small hawks in the day but that's the closest I ever get to a bird of prey. That's a pretty comprehensive collection of birds you've got.
Red Kites have become very common here in Hampshire, I suppose originally because of the breeding and reintroduction programme of the Hawk Conservancy Trust at Weyhill. We often see them flying low over our garden and its a rare day when we don't see one or two when we take the dog for a walk. They seem to be driving out the buzzards, which used to be much more common. They are amazing birds.
Raptors are great to watch and even better to train very different to poultry and game birds but they all bring there own challenges, I get as much pleasure watching the chickens an pheasants go through their daily routines as watching and flying the raptors.
Welcome, hawker13.
Out of interest, how do your poultry get on with living in close proximity to the birds of prey? I wouldn't ordinarily have thought about it, but was in the run with the girls a few days ago when a bird of prey flew overhead. The silhouette looked quite gull-like to me from below; it was the hens' reaction (all scuttling beneath the coop to hide, even though their run has a chicken-wire roof) that caused me to look again.
Are your girls desensitised to birds of prey, or are they somewhere where they can't hear, see or smell them? Do the raptors regard them as a food store, just in case?
11
Out of interest, how do your poultry get on with living in close proximity to the birds of prey? I wouldn't ordinarily have thought about it, but was in the run with the girls a few days ago when a bird of prey flew overhead. The silhouette looked quite gull-like to me from below; it was the hens' reaction (all scuttling beneath the coop to hide, even though their run has a chicken-wire roof) that caused me to look again.
Are your girls desensitised to birds of prey, or are they somewhere where they can't hear, see or smell them? Do the raptors regard them as a food store, just in case?
11