Crows killing chicks.?!

[Jorja484]

Ive been raising chicks lately and had crows take the occasional day old or week old chick, which wasn't too much of a problem but today two pairs of crows killed one of my 6 week old cockerels. The crows have now learnt they can eat larger chicks which is a huge problem. I also cannot kill off all the crows as they keep the eagles away from our chooks. Does anyone have any ideas, would maiming or killing just one of the crows do the job, or is there some other way which would work?

 

[DobieLover]

Maybe keep the chicks in a covered run until they are too large to be an easy target for the crows?

 

[Shadrach]

Use a broody hen to raise the chicks and she'll defend them from the crows.

 

[cmom]

So sorry for your loss. I agree with DobieLover. I hatch out a few hundred chicks every year. The have a brooder for their first couple of weeks and then they go out to the chick/grow-out coop and stay in the coop for another couple of weeks and then I open the pop doors to their pens. At first they are reluctant to go out but eventually they venture out into the pens. We have a lot of crows but the pens are covered so no aerial predator can get to the chicks. I also have electric wires around the coops and pens and concrete under the gates all due to losses from predators in the past. Good luck...

 

[LadiesAndJane]

So sorry for your losses.
I agree, you’ll need to cover all your pens. Crows are incredibly intelligent birds and there would be no reason for them to stop.