How can I thank the crows?

[Desirai]

So just now I went out to water/feed my chickens.
My chickens are kept in a 22ftx22ft run and have limited supervised outings because of neighborhood dogs. (I witnessed a dog jump on my rooster and grab him by the neck.. oh heck no!!!!)

Anyway, I was out there la la la when all of a sudden, CROWS COME OUT OF NOWHERE!

They are totally dive bombing me! I'm actually freaking out and I run and hide in our porch and watch these crows.

They weren't after me at all... they were after a pair of (beautiful) red tailed hawks that had been perched on top of my chicken coop.

It got me thinking, those crows are pretty much protecting my chickens simply by protecting their nests.

How can I thank the crows? I hear about some people who feed them. What do you feed a crow?

I want to make sure they stay around!

 

[Criskin]

I think they eat just about anything but they prefer food that is on the ground. I've heard people suggest peanuts in the shell but I've never tried it myself. We have crows around the yard but they very rarely come near the chickens because the dogs have the run of the place, protect the chickens, and aren't too fond of crows!

 

[sumi]

That's a wonderful idea! Crows like eating meat. I'm sure they'll stick around if you put some minced meat out for them.

 

[cupman]

Yeah they do enjoy meat. You can normally get a pack of 8 turkey hot dogs for like 75 cents at the store. Crows are good, they will keep the hawks away as you said.

 

[Godsgrl]

I've heard hard boiled eggs as well. What great crows you have!

 

[sumi]

We had a shrike who used to hang around and warn our chickens whenever it saw a predator. It was wonderful! It actually chased my chicks into the house one day when a cat visited. Whenever we caught a mouse in the mousetrap we would put it outside on the fence post that the shrike liked sitting on, near the chick pen. It was sort-of a "thank you" from us. We knew it like mice as we saw it catch them in our veggie garden.

 

[quercus21]

I am a firm believer in keeping crows around the ole hen house. We have a family that comes around in the spring and raise their young. This year we found 2 of them down by the wood pile. So the better half named them Heckle and Jekyll. During the winter, spring and fall, when I throw scratch out to the chickens, I throw extra around the lawn for the crows. When the crows come up to the house, they'll get bread. This year I actually saw a crow turn upside down during flight. So far no loses to the hawks.

 

[Bunnylady]

The only problem with encouraging crows, is that if they can get to the place where your hens lay their eggs, the crows will take them. Crows are clever birds, they will take what they can't eat now and hide it for later. I had some hens that were laying eggs in the corners of a horse's stall. When a crow found out, I watched from the house as he flew from the stall with an egg in his mouth, and buried the egg in the compost heap some distance away. Whether I got any of those hen's eggs depended entirely on whether I got there before the crow, and he was checking several times a day!

 

[eggchel]

Our local crows seem to like the walnuts from one of our trees but I imagine they could be good at swiping eggs, too. The worst local egg thieves we have are blue jays.. Clever little buggers.


Chel