Falcons vs Chooks

[Dave Houston]

Chris Golding from Motueka recently asked the following question ...

"We are steadily getting more and more reports from people in the area with complaints that falcons are getting a taste for free range chooks.   Has anyone had similar experiences and got any advice for deterring falcons?"

Laurence Barea from Hamilton provided the following reply ...

Based on my own research on NZ Falcon and involvement with falcons in NZ and overseas for many years, I can tell you that it is highly unlikely that they can be deterred. NZ Falcons are quite comfortable about hunting in close proximity to people, fear little and are easily approached. Consequently, they are unlikely to respond to deterrents. If they are taking free range chickens, it is because they are responding to fluctuations in their resource environment which is a natural ecological response.
 
Options include;

• house the chooks (no longer free range),
• trap and relocate the falcons (although easy to trap, this is unlikely to solve the issue long term and arguable inappropriate given the status of falcons)
• keep chooks inside (i.e., manipulate their resource environment) for a while and hope falcons go away
• a bit of advocacy and learning to live with it

As for me, having falcons in my back yard would be a good reason to keep free range chickens  - but I am biased.

[Peter Gaze]

As this correspondence continued, it was suggested that DOC could pay compensation when falcon kill chickens.  This prompted the response that "you dont expect a payout from the Met Office when there's a snowstorm" - and the reply "no, but its not an offence to shoot snowmen"