Found a crow feather inside the coop

[brx017]

Yesterday evening, I went out to check on my bantams. They were chillin inside the outhouse (their coop), no big deal. Then, I noticed a big black feather right in the middle of the pine shavings. It looks to me like a crow feather. I checked out my three birds, and they all seem to be happy and healthy. Should I be concerned? Would a crow mess with them, or was he most likely just in there for a free meal? Could it be possible they found it on the ground outside and brought it in?

Just so you know, I was only half finished putting netting up over the top of my run. I finished the rest of it today, so hopefully there wont be any more intruders.

 

[Cab the Mane]

One or two isn't much of a problem, but more than that, and they can act like a mob and peck anything small to death for a meal. Had a few try to do that to our Yorkie-Poodle mix, but miraculously, my usually blase and inattentive tomcat ran into the living room meowing and making a commotion till I went out to look... in other words, I got lucky.

They leave LF birds alone I hear... but after what happened to little Bindi, I'd watch these crafty opportunists around the bantams if there's a group of crows and no roo. On the bright side, when they get in fights crows are really loud, so unless you crank the music like me you'll probably hear them if they gang up on a bird.

So I guess my answer is to monitor the situation, but not to dwell too much because they will only try something when they're sure they wont pay for it. The crows might even be too intimidated by the fact that the birds are sticking together to try anything with freely-available and guaranteed non-agressive crumbles lying around(opportunism hooo!)

Oh and if you care about your eggs, you better watch out for a crow in there... because a crow would gladly take an egg of any size and any stage of development(all the nutrients she needs to lay her own eggs, or instantly recover nutrients lost from having layed them earlier!)

 

[thekid]

crows are also good if there is a hawk in the area they chase it off

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Do you know that the collective noun for crows is "a murder"? This is the first year I've had murders of crows hanging around my chicken coops. The pens with the chicks & the bantams are covered so I don't worry about them getting murdered, but those stinkers are going after the eggs, both the ducks' & the chickens'. I'm having to collect the eggs earlier and more often, and devising ways to keep the crows out of the coops while allowing the chickens access to their nest boxes.

 

[Cab the Mane]

Quote:
This is true, actually. If you've had a hawk problem, you may want to indulge the crows with some better food on the other side of the yard so they don't leave, but also don't feel the need to steal eggs. If you don't care about your eggs, I guess the only thing they'll be hurting is the chickens sense of security in the eggbox.

I suppose the overall issue with crows is pretty multi-facetted in comparison to some other predators, whose appearance is always bad news in one way or another. *coughraccoonscough*