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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Foiling aerial predators
  • Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:07:49 -0400

Hi All,

Another request for input, this with regard to aerial predators. I've had my run-ins, mostly with juvenile Cooper's hawks. (I've been told that it's the juveniles who're usually the problem--adults have learned that an adult chicken isn't very easy prey in comparison to voles, chipmunks, etc.) Also a big owl, who apparently landed and walked around the ground hunting until he found somebody to eat inside a mobile pasture shelter I had left open because it was inside an electronet. Have found most of the birds of prey pretty easy to thwart after a few kills allow me to zero in on their modus operandi. Often the simple strategy of leaving the birds shut up until I get out to feed in the morning is sufficient to deter a predator who is making early hits if there's the opportunity, otherwise going elsewhere looking for lunch. And of course in the case of the owl, shutting up coop or shelter, even if a net is protecting from ground predators.

Joel Salatin made the point in EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO IS ILLEGAL that the draconian laws protecting raptors were necessary but, hey, it's time to recognize that they *succeeded*--most populations have rebounded and today it really wouldn't mean the potential extinction of a species if a farmer takes out the occasional "rogue predator" who keeps coming back. Indeed, there was a juvenile Cooper's who met an unfortunate accident hereabouts who had enjoyed about a dozen meals at the Backyard Bar & Grill.

I'm wondering if you have additional advice for foiling raptors? Maybe somebody's covering an entire area with bird netting in the case of a small flock? Has anyone tried the trick of tying monofilament fishing line all about the pasture, to set up an unseen obstacle course that deters stooping birds of prey? I'm familiar with a couple of trapping strategies--anyone tried those?

Thanks.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

My book, THE MODERN HOMESTEAD POULTRY FLOCK, will be published next year by
Chelsea Green Publishing.




  • [Livingontheland] Foiling aerial predators, Harvey Ussery, 10/03/2010

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