Crows

[eggsgalore]

Hi, everyone. I am a new keeper (just over a year) and I keep two flocks of chickens, one bantam and one full sized. The flocks are in two orchards which are a road and our garden apart. They both free range happily and we have had no problems until this year when the big girls' field started to be visited by crows. I have closed feeders with a treadle but some of the girls will only eat if the lids are propped open and I have got into the habit of opening it for them at about 7 and closing before I go to work at 8. When I get home at 3, I will also open up and usually stay in the field for an hour with them... Funny that I have no spare time now! On Friday when i went over to close the lids, there were two crows eating and drinking from the feeders. I can close the feeders and stay whilst the slower birds eat but I can't leave them without water. Help! How does everyone else get round this problem?

 

[Gavin1985]

I have a family of crows trying to steal eggs which is really doing my head in.

I have a.22 but I'm either a rubbish shot, or it's not powerful enough. And to top it off, they always have one or two acting as lookouts!!

 

[tygrysek75]

I heard that dead crow hunging from a tree is best detearant for them.The problem is wher to find dead crow 19

 

[Marigold]

Perhaps this could be the answer, though equally difficult to get hold of as a dead crow, maybe. Also it would traumatise the chickens and they would stop laying I expect.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154283/Cats-away-Artist-turns-dead-pet-flying-helicopter-killed-car.html

 

[Chuck]

Dead crows don't always work. If it works in the beginning, the effect wears off and the corpse will disintegrate anyway. Does it matter if they drink your water ? You don't want them eating valuable food though.

 

[eggsgalore]

I am not fussed about them drinking my water but the fact that they are sharing it with the chickens and that might bring disease. I can't shoot but I might persuade a friend's husband to do it.

 

[chrismahon]

Try sticking a few dozen 7' canes in the ground randomly around the feeder and drinker Eggsgalore. The chickens will walk around them as will the crows, but the crows won't be able to fly off when paniced and I think they will stay away from the feeder and drinker as a result. We use them in runs with chicks to stop crows landing and taking off -they watch but don't enter.

Gavin. If you are shooting a crow with an air rifle it must be a head shot. The pellets just bounce off the rest of them, even with a legal limit rifle. So you will need a good one and a .177 would be better as it is easier to judge pellet drop.

 

[eggsgalore]

Thankyou. I have some hazel to cut which is tall enough so will use that as canes and save myself a trip to the garden centre. I have also found a willing shot so the combination should put them off...

 

[Wrigley62]

I stung up some fishing line with orange loggers tape, plus I put up an Owl Decoy. That seems to be working for now. For the Crows in the distance, I use my .22. Crows are a smart bird, they remember faces or atleast they do mine. Before I started shooting at them they would just hang in the trees till I left, now, as soon as I'm come out the door they leave and I don't even need my rifle with me.

 

[Gavin1985]

I stung up some fishing line with orange loggers tape, plus I put up an Owl Decoy. That seems to be working for now. For the Crows in the distance, I use my .22. Crows are a smart bird, they remember faces or atleast they do mine. Before I started shooting at them they would just hang in the trees till I left, now, as soon as I'm come out the door they leave and I don't even need my rifle with me.

Same thing happens with me now. As soon as I come out, the 'lookouts' warn the rest that i'm about and they fly off. I wondered why I was such a rubbish shot with the .22 lol. Could be I have been hitting them but the pellets have bounced off. 11