Black Vultures

[cowgirl8]

I deal with these grim reapers daily. They drive me crazy, but i've learned how to reduce the damage they cause. First, i pick up all afterbirths. I'll hang around a cow for hours waiting for her to shed her afterbirth so that i can dispose of it. Vultures have learned i do this and will follow me. But to their dismay, i dump the tissue in animal holes and to the dismay to the animal living in the hole..lol We bury our dead animals and after years of doing this, i've seen less birds hanging around.
Here is a bad video i took when i got into the open pasture and saw a couple dozen around a cow who had just shed her afterbirth. The birds will wart the cow and sometimes she'll accidentally step on her newborn. This calf was stepped on, but recovered just fine. If i had been a little later, its outcome may have been worse.
[youtube]Gk4jId3ZQNE[/youtube]
I'd like to hear what others do to keep losses down from these stupid birds..

 

[M.Magis]

Lead poisoning.

 

[skyhightree1]

Lead poisoning.

:nod:

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Hate those suckers with a passion!!! That video would have been a whole lot better if halfway through we could of heard that distinct sound of a 3 inch 12 gauge Magnum load busting their azz!!!

Keep up the good work with protecting your herd!

 

[cowgirl8]

My dream is, if it were legal, is a dead cow, a sack of pennies and a pound of tannerite, a 6.8 200 yrs away and wait. I bet you could get rid of around 30 in one blast. Almost impossible to get them with a shot gun around here, they know the range and stay out of it.
Had trouble today. I heard commotion in the back. When i got back there i had a cow with a new calf. He had a cut on his tongue and looked a little dazed. I'm assuming they pestered her. She may have stepped on him at some point. He was still wet when i got there, she was very agitated. I hung around and saw that he could stand, but hopefully he'll nurse by morning. Didnt help that he was huge..

 

[branguscowgirl]

You are a good cattle rancher cowgirl! :cboy:
Your property looks beautiful!
We have Buzzards, and they are black. But I do not know if they are the same as what some of you have. I have only seen these on dead stuff, so they are probably not as aggressive as yours. I have never seen them challenge a cow. (Thank Goodness!) Hope they never do.

 

[cowgirl8]

The turkey vultures have red heads, are bigger and have a brownish look to them. The black vultures have black heads, are a little smaller, wings are stubbier and are whitish at the tips underneath. They will circle with the turkey vultures, but when its just them, they sit in trees or sit on the ground so not to draw attention that they are there.
Here is a video i took out our living room window of the 2 different kinds. One is a turkey, the others are black. The blacks chase off the brown..
[youtube]_EsHAmdwZaE[/youtube]

 

[TexasBred]

Buzzards have one of the most keen senses of smell in the animal kingdom and they search the wind currents constantly for that smell then hone in on the source. They can smell rotting meat from far away. Don't think hiding afterbirth helps thta much. But if it makes you feel good by all means keep doing it.

 

[cowgirl8]

Buzzards have one of the most keen senses of smell in the animal kingdom and they search the wind currents constantly for that smell then hone in on the source. They can smell rotting meat from far away. Don't think hiding afterbirth helps thta much. But if it makes you feel good by all means keep doing it.

I'm guessing you don't understand. I drop them in animal holes. These holes are deep and out of reach of vultures. Works really well. I use to just move them but it still kept the birds around. From what I can tell they see afterbirth. It's not omitting a rotting smell since they love them fresh,so if I can get it away and out of sight they never know its there. I have watched holes where the tissue did not go under ground and I could still see it down in the hole and it sat there for months. Nothing, even coyotes, ate it.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Well, they have their purpose in life as "clean up crew" for road kill and such. But I sure would not be happy about them picking at a cow and calf!
Thanks for the video cowgirl. I will be looking closely out our bad boys!

 

[cowgirl8]

The brown ones will not bother a cow calving. They do sometimes hang around for the afterbirth, but, years ago before we had so many of the black ones, cows did not mind them hanging around. They do now only because at how aggressive the black ones are and the cows cant tell the difference. There are many people who think they are all the same type bird and will shoot any of them. I'd never kill a brown one, they do indeed keep everything smelly cleaned up...My youngest daughter raised a pair of brown ones who's nest was ruined because the tree it was in fell..She did a very good job raising them and fed them old meat out of our freezer. She even would dance around them doing her buzzard dance. I ask her to preform it occasionally in front of visitors.lol We couldnt tell what kind they were at first, so i was a little nervous until they did show that they were turkey vultures. We were going to put them down if they were the other.

 

[TexasBred]

Buzzards have one of the most keen senses of smell in the animal kingdom and they search the wind currents constantly for that smell then hone in on the source. They can smell rotting meat from far away. Don't think hiding afterbirth helps thta much. But if it makes you feel good by all means keep doing it.

I'm guessing you don't understand. I drop them in animal holes. These holes are deep and out of reach of vultures. Works really well. I use to just move them but it still kept the birds around. From what I can tell they see afterbirth. It's not omitting a rotting smell since they love them fresh,so if I can get it away and out of sight they never know its there. I have watched holes where the tissue did not go under ground and I could still see it down in the hole and it sat there for months. Nothing, even coyotes, ate it.

You've either got a very different vulture up there or I'm gonna have to throw the :bs: flag. Vultures simply do not ignore rotting flesh !!!! Of any kind !!!!

 

[cowgirl8]

Buzzards have one of the most keen senses of smell in the animal kingdom and they search the wind currents constantly for that smell then hone in on the source. They can smell rotting meat from far away. Don't think hiding afterbirth helps thta much. But if it makes you feel good by all means keep doing it.

I'm guessing you don't understand. I drop them in animal holes. These holes are deep and out of reach of vultures. Works really well. I use to just move them but it still kept the birds around. From what I can tell they see afterbirth. It's not omitting a rotting smell since they love them fresh,so if I can get it away and out of sight they never know its there. I have watched holes where the tissue did not go under ground and I could still see it down in the hole and it sat there for months. Nothing, even coyotes, ate it.

You've either got a very different vulture up there or I'm gonna have to throw the :bs: flag. Vultures simply do not ignore rotting flesh !!!! Of any kind !!!!

I'll type slower so you'll understand. The afterbirth is fresh when i collect it, so its not rotting. I put the fresh afterbirth in deep animal holes..Vultures will not,1. see it, and 2. even if they smelled it they wont go in the hole. Now, since our cows calve late winter, its cold. The afterbirth is put into deep holes, out of sight, and its cold. If the afterbirth sits in the hole and the hole resident doesnt eat it, by summer the tissue is dried out or heck even rotted. Now, if the vulture does happen to smell it, i no longer have cows calving, thus, no vulture problem.
Can i ask, if they are a big problem in your area, what do you do if you see them harassing a cow for her afterbirth? There have been times i get there and the cow has almost finished it. If i dont have more cows to check on, i'll let her finish but i stay in sight so the vultures stay away. If you are out checking cows and come across one you know the cow isnt going to eat, do you just leave it? If you do, then the birds up here are way more aggressive than the ones you have. And as far as rotting animals, we bury all dead cows. You know, that works too. Humans have been doing it for years with no vulture problems...

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

If the black one show up before the calf is born you won't have to worry about the after birth. You can bury the cow and the calf.

 

[TexasBred]

I'll type slower.....flesh does not stay "fresh" for very long. Buzzards also are drawn to "blood" ;-) Guess I need to find me some animals to dig holes in my place. I don't have any. They will go in a hole as well. Friend build a trap for them that consisted of a covered "hole" or tunnel if you will. Worked great and the decaying dead buzzards served as bait for any others that came around.

 

[cowgirl8]

Take for instance the first video. I chased off a couple dozen buzzards off this one cow who, while protecting her afterbirth, stunned her calf by stepping on him. She had most of her 'fresh' afterbirth, probably 1, 5 minutes on the ground so the couple dozen birds were not attracted to rotting afterbirth. Frantically trying to get rid of it while fighting the birds, here i come and chased the birds off. I point my camera where the birds went to and for sure they watch and waited.. Now, i probably had many more miles to go that day and i cant sit all day waiting for that cow to finish eating that. Really, no one wants to watch that, its gross. SO, i take that tissue, i roll it up on a stick and slap it on the front of my 4wheeler. I then take it into the next pasture, maybe even the next just depends on when i come across the first hole thats easy for me to flap that jack easily into. Now, i couldnt give a rats --ss if those darn birds crawl in that hole(and i'm confidently saying i've never seen it in the 10ish years i've been doing this maybe the difference between a trap hole and a animal hole is a predator is in the holes i drop them in lol). What i accomplished is, i took the focus off that cow and her new calf because there is nothing for the birds to eat and it allowed the cow to then move her calf away and back to the safety of the herd. I have found that it lowers the chance of the cow trampling her calf by accident while fighting the birds and it keeps them out of the pasture the cows are calving in if there is no afterbirth for them to eat and makes it safer if another cow is calving. And like i said, i use to just drop it on the top of the ground in an area where they cows werent, but, the birds hung around waiting. Dropping them in holes gets rid of that easy meal they love and they then focus their attention to other ranchers cows who arent being watched. Right now i'm working on a scarecrow of sorts that i can set in the pastures to scare them away. But those darn birds are so smart that the only way i've found to limit loss to them is just to keep my pastures clean of anything they want to eat and just be around in case a cow has calving trouble.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Hate those suckers with a passion!!! That video would have been a whole lot better if halfway through we could of heard that distinct sound of a 3 inch 12 gauge Magnum load busting their azz!!!

Keep up the good work with protecting your herd!

They are not hard to take out. You can take out a dozen at one time and two dozen more show up.
Buzzard trap will take them out they are illegal.
The problem is they are like fleas .

 

[txffamom]

For some reason, they are hanging around our area now. Maybe cowgirl has scared them this direction. We watched 3 hover over the pasture where we have the momma that is about to calve.

The black vultures will also attack a calf before it is fully exposed to the world or a calf who is separated from the herd. 2 calves were lost last season at the pasture where our girls are. We now know where to find the defense and are well versed in what to do should we see one within range.

 

[cowgirl8]

For some reason, they are hanging around our area now. Maybe cowgirl has scared them this direction. We watched 3 hover over the pasture where we have the momma that is about to calve.

The black vultures will also attack a calf before it is fully exposed to the world or a calf who is separated from the herd. 2 calves were lost last season at the pasture where our girls are. We now know where to find the defense and are well versed in what to do should we see one within range.

The calf i found the other day that had the birds harassing his mother and had his tongue lashed as he was coming out. One of the birds pecked his tongue before they were chased off. It was bleeding pretty bad when i found them. A day and a half later, he had a joint infection. I have no doubt that he got it from this wound. Yet another way for these birds to kill, they get in a bite and then wait a few days. I took the calf to the vet where 8 of his joints were drained. Hopefully i found him soon enough. They were not swollen the evening before, found him early the next day walking stiff legged. Took him asap to the vet and got him back that evening. I smelled DMSO so i'm guess the vet used it. I wasnt able to talk to the vet, he just yelled across the pens to put him back out with his mother.
Bruno, in Texas you can get a permit to trap them. And the birds around here know the safe distance to protect themselves from a shot gun. A shotgun is useless against these birds in my area..

 

[Caustic Burno]

For some reason, they are hanging around our area now. Maybe cowgirl has scared them this direction. We watched 3 hover over the pasture where we have the momma that is about to calve.

The black vultures will also attack a calf before it is fully exposed to the world or a calf who is separated from the herd. 2 calves were lost last season at the pasture where our girls are. We now know where to find the defense and are well versed in what to do should we see one within range.

The calf i found the other day that had the birds harassing his mother and had his tongue lashed as he was coming out. One of the birds pecked his tongue before they were chased off. It was bleeding pretty bad when i found them. A day and a half later, he had a joint infection. I have no doubt that he got it from this wound. Yet another way for these birds to kill, they get in a bite and then wait a few days. I took the calf to the vet where 8 of his joints were drained. Hopefully i found him soon enough. They were not swollen the evening before, found him early the next day walking stiff legged. Took him asap to the vet and got him back that evening. I smelled DMSO so i'm guess the vet used it. I wasnt able to talk to the vet, he just yelled across the pens to put him back out with his mother.
Bruno, in Texas you can get a permit to trap them. And the birds around here know the safe distance to protect themselves from a shot gun. A shotgun is useless against these birds in my area..

You kill all you want I just shoo them off according to my GW it is illegal by any means to harm the birds.
They fall under the federal migratory bird act.
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2012 ... acebusted/