Crows attacking chickens!?

[CallDuckLover]

Outside there are a bunch of crows in the sky circling above the chicken pen. I have some younger bantam chicks in there. Are the crows planning on eating them? This is very freaky... Thank you for any help.

 

[GammaPoppyLilyFlutter]

The crows may be curious. However, they probably won't be able to get the chicks inside the coop. Try only letting them out under your supervision until they're bigger.

And I've never heard of a crow eating a chicken, but they attack owls and hawks. They are more of sky predators, not ground predators.

For me, the rows just sit in a redwood tree cawing at my pullets, though they never come down. The jays, however, dive bomb the chickens. Neither hurts them

Hope this helps

Though I'm not really an expert

 

[Hillsvale]

google Raven and make sure that is not what you have .... they are bigger than a crow and they certainly will eat a chicken, they did that to one of my meat birds (and several brand new chicks)... all roughly 8 pounds of him except the feet and wings! We took herring nettng and covered the meatie hut!

 

[pgpoultry]

Crows, particularly the bigger ones (esp. ravens) can and will take chicks and larger birds. I am about to start my rant about crows and how they are nasty vicious things. They killed a number of my neighbour's lambs this spring and peck any wound mercilessly.

Though they are very handsome birds I cannot like them after I saw them peck the eyes out of a sick ewe before I could chase them away. Must be the most gross thing I have ever witnessed.

Keep your babies safe from these vicious predators,

Sandie

 

[Chirpy]

One of the reasons that any wild birds will come around is if you have feed outside. So make sure all feed for your chickens is inside where the wild birds cannot see it.

As stated it is possible that the crows are sizing up your chickens (especially young chicks) for a meal. One thing that many people have done to 'confuse' wild birds from swooping down is to tie old CDs/DVDs across the top of your chicken run. Hang them on strings so they move with the wind. You can also run chicken wire or bird netting across the top of your run, if it's not too huge.

 

[CallDuckLover]

This reminds me of the movie "The Birds"..

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Quote:

That was scary when I was a kid!

 

[MeatKing]

Some crows were all sitting in the big ol maple, that's inside the chicken. All cawing and making a hudge racket, I went out and there was one sitting just on the outside of the run, looking it over.. Has if to say "How will we get in there?" Thet seemed to be working as a team.. I chased them off, yelling at them. They came back a bit later, and I ran out yelling at them. They haven't been back, as far as I know. So I'm pretty sure they would, at least try. amazing the team work they seemed to be putting into it!

 

[Xanthro]

They aren't called a murder of crows for nothing.

They'll eat chickens if given the chance.

 

[Blooming chicks]

I agree with those above--crows will take chicks and ducklings. They are pretty brazen. Last week I watched as 5-6 crows relentlessly attacked a fox--continually dive bombing it until it ran off. I didn't mind that so much