Chatting to the local farmer (land owner rather than the tenant actually looking after the sheep) and he was claiming that locally nesting Buzzards are killing lambs. I'm suspicious about this, and even web 'rural life' forums you'd kinda think would be anti-raptor seem to be largely unconvinced that this happens. Ravens may seem more likely to blame, but of course a Buzzard's gonna peck at an already dead one. 🤷 #ukBirds#farming
@ghickman Ha. In this case they are, as they’ve their own cattle place elsewhere and just inherited the one round our way (as you do). It includes this which breaks my heart to see falling apart.
@ai6yr what I miss in this story is whether the GNSS receivers would have a high uncertainty (GNSS term DOP or Dilution of precision) and just ignored this (which I find hard to believe in such a high-precision use) or the receivers had very accurate but wrong readouts (which I would find difficult to understand from what I know of GNSS reception).
@ai6yr
I can see the scene now at the local diner.
"Hey Gordie, those rows of corn you planted look a little shaky".
"Yeah Jim, my GPS went out with that solar storm, first time I got to use that excuse". 😅😅
“Farmers’ union lobbied to increase pesticide limit in UK drinking water. NFU’s director of strategy asked for review of EU-derived protections as part of post-Brexit loosening of rules.” Well you wouldn’t want public health getting in the way of increased farm rents for rich landowners. #tories#farming
Seeking some advice from my fellow #Poultry people.
There are two ravens that have recently become very bold and begun flying down into our chicken's (fenced) yard to steal some of the scraps we throw for them. Until recently, these same ravens have been pretty known around the property: sometimes they raid our compost, or play with my dog's toys, so I'm not really averse to having them around. However, I'm a little worried about disease vectors or them trying to steal one of my smaller chickens (or young pullets when we have them).
So, if you look online, everyone says basically that you MUST fence the roof of the yard, keep them out at all costs, etc. But I feel a little hesitant to do something so drastic. First, small songbirds do hang out with our chickens sometimes and eat their food, and while those are also potential disease vectors, they eat flies and other pests that might otherwise plague our chickens and gardens, and I'm happy to have them around unless a problem should arise (so far so good, we have pretty hardy poultry and plan to keep it that way). Second, it would just be costly to do something like that and I'm kind of hoping to avoid adding that to our project list right now. Finally, our chickens often are let out to pasture when I don't have new seeds in the ground, and so even if their yard is fully secured I'm interested in solutions/ideas that would fit with pastured birds as well.
TLDR; how concerned should I be about ravens getting braver around my flock of chickens? What solutions could I employ that would work for my chickens in their yard and when they pasture?
Getting a meaner rooster: mine protects his girls by getting them inside, as far as I can tell. He used to crow loudly at the ravens, but when both ravens came today together he didn't make a sound and all the birds just went inside. I'm concerned about the impact of adding another rooster to this flock, but it might be worth a try.
Trying to train my dog to chase the ravens away (he does this when they're low enough to the ground, but not consistently, and doesn't have the same scent-basis for seeking them out the way he does with coyotes or other predators who approach our property).
Hanging shiny things from string stretched over their yard to disrupt the raven's flight path. I'm not sure if this works for ravens like it does hawks or other raptors, because they're just... very intelligent, and also it wouldn't work when the birds are pastured.
Get a goose? We don't really have the infrastructure for waterfowl at the moment. I do want geese eventually, but am not sure I'm ready to try to get a little gosling adopted in with my hens and it isn't a quick solution.
@siin hey you two, jacqueline @photovotary recently posted about her dear chicken friend, so I thought I’d connect you two, if you weren’t already connected. cheers!
Food insecurity looms around the world, with worsening climatic conditions. Some crops can be adapted/changed but that is more difficult when the problem is unpredictable and wide-ranging between drought and flood.
The ducks and geese are now in their own pen, and have really been enjoying exploring their new home.アヒルとガチョウは今、自分の囲いの中にいて、新しい住処の探検をとても楽しんでいます。 #farming