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Has anyone had any experience of their buns being threatened by a Bird of Prey?

Fairy13

Wise Old Thumper
Hiya :wave: maybe a bit of a silly question!
I was just wondering if anyone had any concerns over their buns being taken by a bird of prey?
We have a couple of smaller runs that are covered but have a real large one, mainly used by Willow (he's a heffer so not sure if he would be seen as an opportunity or not! :lol:) which is 4 ft high but not covered. He's only ever in it when I'm home and keeping an eye on him.

However about a mile away there are a pair of Red Kites that normally frequnt some fields going out of town :D They are absolutely beautiful, but of recent (this week) I have noticed them flying close, and once yesterday, over the garden. I'm normally alerted by it because the crows seem to take offence and get very noisy! Not that the Kite seems bothered at all.

From what I read here http://www.redkites.co.uk/ seems like they feed mainly on carrion, but my MIL says they have been known to take a wild bun etc if they got the oppurtunity. Other thing is I suppose is would they not come down into a garden :? they're a bit big, maybe shy? maybe they wouldnt bother.

Obviously makes me a bit nervous, and I'm thinking I need to figure out somesort of maybe opaque cover for the run that the bird couldnt see from above :?

Sorry I'm rambling on a bit! They are absolutely stunning birds and I love watching them but having them fly so close is making me a bit nervous.
Does anyone else have any concerns or know of any domestic buns taken by birds?

Phew, finished now! :lol:
 
Sorry I haven't so can't help.

Willow is a big bunny, but personally I wouldn't want to take any chances. There is also the possibility of him hurting himself if he panics if they are about.
 
I worry about it as we live close to lots of open countryside and yesterday I was about half a mile from our house when I saw a huge bird of prey stood on the gate to a field - it was a magnificent bird - probably some type of hawk (but much bigger than a sparrow hawk)

My runs have roofs on, but the buns do have free range time.
When they're in the garden I always check the sky just in case, but as these birds spot their prey and dive at something like 100mph I doubt there would be any time to react!

I doubt they'd come into gardens, but I guess there is always the risk.
 
We've got a problem with a magpie. He (well, we don't know if it's a he or a she really) came down one day when the bunnies were in their runs and he kept coming up to the wire on the runs and trying to get close to the bunnies. Naturally, Biscuit thought he wanted to play and kept chasing him, but he took a real shine to Nibbles and hasn't left her alone since. He's always around and it's worrying as they're EVIL :shock: Martyn caught him actually on the wire on the front of the hutch one day while Nibbles was being a cocky little sh*te and practically saying "come on then. I'll 'ave ya!!!" I'm scared she'll get her eyes pecked out or something :(
 
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We've got a problem with a magpie. He (well, we don't know if it's a he or a she really) came down one day when the bunnies were in their runs and he kept coming up to the wire on the runs and trying to get close to the bunnies. Naturally, Biscuit thought he wanted to play and kept chasing him, but he took a real shine to Nibbles and hasn't left her alone since. He's always around and it's worrying as they're EVIL :shock: Martyn caught him actually on the wire on the front of the hutch one day while Nibbles was being a cocky little sh*te and practically saying "come on then. I'll 'ave ya!!!" I'm scared she'll get her eyes pecked out or something :(

Oh gosh really?! I'd worry too about magpies and eyes. They are odd birds. I hope it soon gets fed up of coming to your garden.
 
I would try to use some sort of netting over the top of the run.

thanks yeah, i think I'm going to have to engineer some sort of mesh or stretching blankets across and pegging them down. It's probably unlikely that it would happen but cant help but worry a bit :?
 
had a similar situation with what looked to be a sparrow hawk in our garden. I now think it was after birds and not my buns - well I hope so anyway - and have made a decision to still allow my 2 free range time as they've done that for 2 years and they would be so miserable if I didn't let them. I suspect this bird has been around for ages as I once found a pile of feathers and that's what they leave when they take a bird. I don't want to say don't worry and then something happen but I had to weigh up pros and cons. My 2 play out when I'm home but do have netting over their run when I'm out or at work.
 
A bird of prey lifted my deps nethy X last summer. Luckily she's a hefty little thing and the bird couldn't carry the weight and dropped her!

She went into panic mode because the buns were free ranging in the garden and she was grabbing them all left, right and centre to put them back inside for safety!!
 
I'd worry - I live right close to town and we still have sparrow hawks, ect, that fly into gardens. As long as they see the chance, they wouldn't have a problem with it.
I'd worry more about a small bunny, but still not nice to worry about coz his tallons could still do some damage to a larger bunny if he did try it
 
I was outside with my bun last summer and i was sitting on the porch watching him in his netted enclosure and i looked up and poor brownie was jsut completely stock frozen still in one corner of the net. So i got up to see what was wrong. I was sitting there petting him and talking to him, then i realized maybe there was a cat or dog or something around. So i take a look around and even up in the trees and don;t see anything. As i'm sitting there next to him trying to figure out what has got him soo spooked then i hear a "hoooo" "hooo" and i was like.. AHA! OWL! that's what's got him soo freaked! So i scooped him up and brought him back inside.
 
Hi yes I have experienced this.many years ago I had a baby Lop and he was sat In a massive open topped run,I just happened to be walking past the window and a great big buzzard was sat on the post eyeing up my bun as soon as he saw me he flew off and Thumper was safe.
Last year a sparrow hawk kept coming into the garden but as I have contis now he didn't even bother trying to attack them
 
Thanks all for you opinions etc. I will have to try netting across the whole thing. Will be a pain in the bum, but worth it!
My OH said the same is even if the bird couldnt carry the bun (their body is apprently small only 2 or 3lbs but their wing span 5 1/2ft!) they could still do some horrible damage with their talons.
Brrr makes me shudder. I will fix something up over the large one. Thanks very much! x x
 
Hadnt really thought of magpies and we had a nest in a tree last year:shock:buns are free range so I'll worry now.
 
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