Crows harassing our flock!

[Corryn]

I know everyone thinks the crows are great, and I’ve never had a problem with them. I love the cute stories! But for some reason the crows in this area harass us instead of helping.

I’ve heard a lot of caw caw cawing but ignored it until last week when I went outside and saw two crows in the covered run! I scared him out.
The next day i kept the video camera on while at work and saw a crow jump into the nesting box as one of my ladies was nesting and it scared my lady out!

We were wondering why our ladies weren’t laying and I think that is the reason. They hadn't been laying their regular for over a week.
Another day, I was again looking at the cameras while at work and just so happened to catch my husband shooing a crow out of the actual coop!

What is going on!

 

[nuthatched]

They want the eggs, they've likely been stealing eggs.
Do you know how they're getting in?

 

[DonyaQuick]

There must be some pretty big gaps in the fencing for them to get in, which could be a predator risk too (if crows can get in, so can a small hawk/owl) - or are the doors just being left open for free-ranging?

 

[Altairsky]

Crows are stealing the eggs. There are 2 things that can permanently fix the issue:
1- Secure your coop, close all the gaps.
2- Get a large roo to deal with the problem. When my roo sees a crow, he's like "Bro I either hump you, or kill you, your choice"

 

[Al Gerhart]

You have gotten some great advice so far. Fix the gaps in the pen. I wonder about egg stealing, could a crow even pick up a hen's egg? Any evidence of broken eggs, the crows consuming them on the spot?

Can the crows get to the chicken feed? That is the most likely reason for a crow to show up.

 

[Altairsky]

You have gotten some great advice so far. Fix the gaps in the pen. I wonder about egg stealing, could a crow even pick up a hen's egg? Any evidence of broken eggs, the crows consuming them on the spot?

I once placed a nest out of the coop with a few fake eggs because I had the feeling one hen was laying outside.
One day later, one of the fake eggs disappeared. I placed a camera trap and a few real eggs. It was magpies stealing the eggs. Magpies here are smaller than crows.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Are they crows are or ravens?
They’re both brilliant birds, but while crows feel like chaotic comedians and opportunists, ravens are more like mysterious sages that hunt like vultures with a flair for the dramatic. They can all make the same noise- but they eat, sleep and function differently.

Which I can advise, as the behaviour is quite unique. Which mean different means of approach.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I wonder about egg stealing, could a crow even pick up a hen's egg?

Crows can absolutely pick up large eggs in their beaks.

 

[nuthatched]

Could a crow even pick up a hen's egg?

Yep. My neighbors found all my fake eggs in their gutters.

 

[Corryn]

Thank you all, I sincerely appreciate the advice!
The coop itself is a large, enclosed room in the pole barn with hardware cloth covering all the open parts. We live in SW Florida and we need all the ventilation we can get. The inly way a crow can get in. AND DID get in, is through the automatic coop door that remains open all day. We also have rabbits who love cohabitating in the coop in their own bunny condo, with hardware cloth and tunnels only the bunnies can get through so the chickens can’t go in there and get it all messy.
The run is wide open under the overhang of the pole barn. This is, until we saw what was going on. My husband got to work and is enclosing the run under the overhang with hardware cloth. He will be enclosing the top as well just like the coop so nothing can get in. He only got so far this weekend and will finish next weekend.

We have a large nesting box out in the covered run that supposedly three hens can fit in at one time, but you know how that goes.
We also have a few nesting boxes inside which, after being scared off by the crows, no one is using.
We have two barn cats and three Great Pyrenees that are great at scaring the birds away - as long as they’re up. Those guys sleep during the day. We have two juvenile roos in our flock so it might be a few months until they’re ready for action.
I had no idea the crows can carry the eggs, and it makes sense because that’s where they were harassing the hens, while they were nesting.
The flock’s feed is placed in those PVC Pipe feeders everyone makes, we have 4 and they’re under the covered run.
I say covered run because we have an uncovered part of the run that I strung fishing line all around because we did lose a couple of hens to a hawk, the fishing line helped cure that problem, the hawks don’t come around any more. I’m going to look at the video and see if I can catch a crow stealing an egg. If I have a photo, I will post it here.
In the meantime, we will just be vigilant until the covered run is secured with hardware cloth.

One more question: We have 2 month old chicks inside the coop. They’re still too little to go out into the run. Do you think a crow might have wanted a young chick, it might have heard the babies chirp chirp chirping or do they only eat eggs?

And as for the question if they’re crows or ravens, I think I’ve only seen a raven a handful of times, i thought they were much larger than a crow. These birds are the regular size - that could mean anything, I know, but I mean they are not large birds. We have eagles, osprey and regular hawks around here and the ‘crows’ are not as big as them