Crows stealing eggs

[Crnagora]

oh man! those are some pretty bold crows. I have a lot of crows here and they do flyovers and scan the yard for random duck eggs, if they find one before I get it then they steal it.... but Im pretty good at getting them first. I dont think they have ever entered the coop. I'd be pretty mad at them if they did and I think they want to keep me as a friend since I feed them dog kibble and peanuts (and sometimes eggs that we cant eat /cracked/ found after a few days/ soaked in pool/ etc) and sometimes even some grapes!! I feed crows up in the front of my property and the ducks are out back. The crows chase hawks away ! Ive seen it dozens of times and I am thankful for that. But oh boy going inside the coop would be crossing the line!!

Man I wish, but I’ve heard from others in my area that it’s a common problem as they are also missing eggs. I found a broken egg pretty close to the run near my neighbors lawn maybe they dropped it.

 

[Crnagora]

What are the dimensions? I'd think bird netting would be able to cover most of the run.

Probably 12m x 30m used to be an area for sheep during the summer. To cover the top would be costly.

 

[Jenbirdee]

It’s a huge area there’s no way I can cover it all

then just cover the area over and around the coop? maybe crows dont like to have to walk so far if they cant just land close to the door...

 

[Crnagora]

then just cover the area over and around the coop? maybe crows dont like to have to walk so far if they cant just land close to the door...

I’ll try that out thanks

 

[Jenbirdee]

I have another idea (maybe silly but who knows could work?) Get a bunch of FAKE eggs and replace all the real eggs with the fake ones (as much as you are able) perhaps the crows will get frustrated and go away...

 

[Crnagora]

then just cover the area over and around the coop? maybe crows dont like to have to walk so far if they cant just land close to the door...

Is it possible the appearance of crows in the coop is causing stress to the chickens effecting egg production? I was there all day and my 7 chickens didn’t lay at all

 

[CoopBoots]

Oh geez! That's awful, I'd be so mad! A couple things that might help...

Disclaimer: Crows will hate you a long time if you make yourself an obvious enemy. Bear that in mind no matter what you do and make sure you are ready to deal with their harassment. I'd try and ward them off via inconvenience or scares that didn't involve me personally. I might even wear a mask lol.

If your chicken door is big, I'd reduce it. Assuming it's already chicken sized, make it hard or scary for a wild bird to go into. Example: try a "chunnel" (wire covered chicken sized tunnel) connection to your door. Teach the hens to navigate -- they are good on the ground so shouldn't be too hard -- and the crow will be wary of what could be a trap. You can stand watch a while and even potentially catch them inside if they are brave enough to go through the tunnel into the closed coop area. Scare the pants off of them or find other legal means of dealing with them and they'll get the idea.

You could also buy dead crow effigies to try and scare them off. These are easy to get ahold of on Amazon I believe...

Owl dummy might also help. They also dislike noisy stuff like wind chimes or so I've been told.

Dummy eggs/nasty egg surprises. No egg eater wants a mouthful of soap or similar. Work involved in making the dummies but might be worth a shot.

 

[Jenbirdee]

hey! I just read this in another thread !
(upside-down fake crows really do work to keep them out of the yard!).

 

[Jenbirdee]

Oh geez! That's awful, I'd be so mad! A couple things that might help...

Disclaimer: Crows will hate you a long time if you make yourself an obvious enemy. Bear that in mind no matter what you do and make sure you are ready to deal with their harassment. I'd try and ward them off via inconvenience or scares that didn't involve me personally. I might even wear a mask lol.

If your chicken door is big, I'd reduce it. Assuming it's already chicken sized, make it hard or scary for a wild bird to go into. Example: try a "chunnel" (wire covered chicken sized tunnel) connection to your door. Teach the hens to navigate -- they are good on the ground so shouldn't be too hard -- and the crow will be wary of what could be a trap. You can stand watch a while and even potentially catch them inside if they are brave enough to go through the tunnel into the closed coop area. Scare the pants off of them or find other legal means of dealing with them and they'll get the idea.

You could also buy dead crow effigies to try and scare them off. These are easy to get ahold of on Amazon I believe...

Owl dummy might also help. They also dislike noisy stuff like wind chimes or so I've been told.

Dummy eggs/nasty egg surprises. No egg eater wants a mouthful of soap or similar. Work involved in making the dummies but might be worth a shot.

@CoopBoots you said "I might even wear a mask lol."

 

[Crnagora]

Oh geez! That's awful, I'd be so mad! A couple things that might help...

Disclaimer: Crows will hate you a long time if you make yourself an obvious enemy. Bear that in mind no matter what you do and make sure you are ready to deal with their harassment. I'd try and ward them off via inconvenience or scares that didn't involve me personally. I might even wear a mask lol.

If your chicken door is big, I'd reduce it. Assuming it's already chicken sized, make it hard or scary for a wild bird to go into. Example: try a "chunnel" (wire covered chicken sized tunnel) connection to your door. Teach the hens to navigate -- they are good on the ground so shouldn't be too hard -- and the crow will be wary of what could be a trap. You can stand watch a while and even potentially catch them inside if they are brave enough to go through the tunnel into the closed coop area. Scare the pants off of them or find other legal means of dealing with them and they'll get the idea.

You could also buy dead crow effigies to try and scare them off. These are easy to get ahold of on Amazon I believe...

Owl dummy might also help. They also dislike noisy stuff like wind chimes or so I've been told.

Dummy eggs/nasty egg surprises. No egg eater wants a mouthful of soap or similar. Work involved in making the dummies but might be worth a shot.

Yea my door was huge before I even knew of this problem. I recently made a smaller door for the chickens to enter. The tunnel is a good idea I might try that. I’d buy a dead crow effigy but I can’t find it anywhere in my country and Amazon shipping fees here is ridiculous.