Symptoms of Crow Predation on Chicks?

[Florida Bullfrog]

That’s a very good idea. I keep trail cameras around the more remote parts of my property but I don’t have anything out in the blueberries immediately behind the main coop.

I do have a very large resident bobcat, but I figure he’d take an adult as easy as a chick so I ruled him out early on.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

My smallest Wyandotte was missing yesterday evening at roll call. I hoped she would show up this morning. She didn’t, and I found this in front of the coop about 30 yards away from the door of the run.

I would be surprised that any hawk smaller than a red tail could fly off with her. I’ll have to search the blueberry rows behind the coop to see if I can find a feather pile.

https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/feather.php?Bird=RSHA_tail_ad

 

[centrarchid]

Not a hawk

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The predator or the feather?

 

[centrarchid]

The predator or the feather?

The predator. Since you are in Florida, not the feather either as likely a skunk ape tail appendage.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The predator. Since you are in Florida, not the feather either as likely a skunk ape tail appendage.

Well the feather is a red shoulder. I agree its not likely the red shoulder hauled off with a wyandotte. The feather does show me the red shoulders are making passes I’m not seeing, presumably during the day while I’m not home, and one did something to exert itself and loose a feather in the area where the chickens congregate to scratch feed. That could have been an attempt on a juvenile that has nothing to do with the missing Wyandotte.

Narrowing in on a potential area where the predator is lurking will be hard. All the chickens venture far into the blueberries and also to the woods edge. Plenty of cover for a ground predator in several directions.

I would suspect my dogs even, except that they wouldn’t be hiding or hauling off with the bodies. I’d find feathers and carcasses here and there.

I have some box traps out. That’s all Florida allows us to trap with besides snares. I’ve been baiting them with culled roosters. Something took the bait in my largest trap last night but it needs to be greased apparently because it didn’t fire. I will get that one working on a hair trigger and rebait tonight.

 

[centrarchid]

Consider placing a juvenile in a cage of some sort out where they appear to be taken. Then orient a camera on that. I have been using larger minnow traps that are tough enough to resist a fox or coyote. Neither will invest much into breaking minnow trap material.


I have seen hawks tangle with larger prey items many times. They very seldom loose a feather because of the encounter. The feather came out as part of the normal molting process. Odds are feather not from adult male Red-shouldered or from a juvenile of this year.

My dogs that killed would consume them in their entirely, feathers and all.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have a game plan this weekend. This evening I’m going to grease and rebait the big trap. Its located several hundred yards from the coop so any predator or scavenger messing with it may not be related to my predations around the coup area. But it will be good to catch whatever took the carcass anyhow.

I’m also going to set up a comfy chair and a shooting rest right behind the coop overlooking the lane that divides the north and south blueberry fields. In the morning before daylight I’m going to tether a cull juvenile within a reasonable shooting distance of my blind and just sit all morning to see what I see or hear. I’ll be armed with a .308 air rifle to quietly take anything that would otherwise be legal on my permits. I might even pop off a velvet buck for some fresh venison (I have year-round deer permits).

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I've had no dice hunting, but no predations either. I did loose one fresh chick to a white oak snake but the snake got dispatched on a subsequent coop raid. I had caught him in the act but he got up in the wall space in the coop (the coop is a converted bunkhouse the migrant workers used to sleep in when the previous owner ran this farm). Five young guinea fowl keets have went missing, but I found them running with a wild turkey hen a couple of mornings later in the blueberry fields. I may or may not ever see them again. This is the first time its happened to me, but its a pretty normal occurrence other family members have observed for guineas to leave with wild turkeys.

I have found bear scat 40 yards behind the main coop and I did catch about a 300lb bear easing out of the blueberry fields last Monday morning, getting the last bit of this year's blueberries. I doubt a bear has been my culprit.

 

[cmom]

I have never had any issues with crows. Before I covered the pens crows would go in and get any eggs that were layed on the ground. Looks like an owl feather. I have lost birds to owls that come out at dusk. I have several game cameras around on my property. I see predators on them mostly at night. I live in Florida too near Ocala. I don't free range anymore due to losses from predators but my birds have nice large pens. Currently I have around 400 birds including the young birds. I do hatch out a couple hundred chicks every spring. I sell the excess males to help offset the feed costs. I have large covered pens for my birds, concrete under the pen gates and electric wires around the coops and pens. My land is mostly open pasture. There are some woods behind me and some across the street. Good luck...