are crows a threat?

[WalkingWolf]

Crows are great hawk deterrents, but they will steal eggs and sometimes take chicks to feed their own.

 

[monita]

Crows are fine around grown chickens but they will kill and eat bantams and young birds.... I lost 75 out of 78 young birds last spring to predators... most being to the crows. I would see them land on a tree limb and dive down to attack young birds and chicks.

but on the other hand... like others have said.... they are great for the grown LF chickens.... they deter hawks.... so just keep the smaller birds penned in a covered coop and run and you should be fine.

 

[suebee]

Quote:
I've never had a crow get my free ranging silkies, and I let my silkie chicks start free ranging at 2 months old!

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
I've never had a crow get my free ranging silkies, and I let my silkie chicks start free ranging at 2 months old!

I watched a crow carry off my neighbors chick the day before yesterday, about the size of a 2 month old silkie. There were two of them and they had managed to make it into my yard but were not hanging around my roosters. The crow snatched the one and left the other one cheeping frantically for it's buddy. The crow had been in my yard for the past several weeks eyeballing my chicks in pens, and stealing duck eggs if I did not get there first. If they are small enough for the crow to fly with them, you better watch out. Though the crows leave my full grown silkies alone.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I HATE crows!!!

There are 2 crows that fly around my property every day. On yesterday, someone at my house noticed a crow fly in the chicken house and fly out with what looked like a day old chick or an egg. I am soo ready to kill it. It has been tormenting my birds for weeks. I HATE CROWS!!!!!!

 

[woodmort]

The worst thing about crows is they may introduce parasites and disease to your flock if they start eating feed. On the other hand, they are very smart and can adapt very quickly so are hard to get rid of once they've set up shop. I wouldn't trust them around small birds or eggs but, as mentioned above, they do deter hawks and owls.

 

[drumstick diva]

Crows/cows it's easy to mix them up. Don't pick on Hunter. I usually walk around with the "blind staggers," from 3-4 hours of sleep you never know what cows are up too. They don't all sing and hope to become a happy California cow. Keep an eye on them.

 

[Ibicella]

Not usually.

As the others have said, they are great raptor deterrents. But being crows, they are very opportunistic and will help themselves to an egg or chick if they can get to them. So be sure to keep your runs covered, for safe measure.

Ravens are much worse. They are bigger and more predatory than a crow is and they can wreak havoc on flocks because they will go after full grown chickens.

 

[MattalynsBarn]

Quote:
Our hawks are afraid of our robins

 

[The Tinman]

One of the main reasons I got black Jersey Giant is they look like a bunch of crows. I use to see hawks all the time. They would pick off squirrels off my bird feeders. I have not seen 1 since I put the girls out side. So far I`m good.