For the past week, I have had a crow that has been standing guard on the telephone lines and my fence teasing and taunting my baby chicks, turkeys and ducks. It will take off and turn around and do a nose dive into the chicken yard and land on the ground. It will then walk around and tease and taunt my babies. All of the mama chickens, turkeys and ducks will put up a fight and run it off but it continues to come back. I do not want to have to keep all of my babies locked up but I am afraid that this crow may harm them or possibly kill them. I guess any animal that is trying to do harm to your animals is a predator huh? I have never heard of a crow being listed as a predator, so I am not sure. I have a BB gun that I shoot it with to try to scare it away but it comes back. I cant stand guard all day. The babies are in an open area that is about ½ acre. They all have their own separate chicken houses and duck pens that they go in to at night for security. I would hate to have to lock them up all day but I will if thats what I have to do for their safety and security. All together were talking about 120 babies. Should I be worried that the crow will kill them? What should I do?
I think I would be concerned about a crow flying off with a baby. But after they are all grown, crows can be a good alarm system when a hawk is near.
Crows are not predators to chickens but to a small chick they could snag one. I have heard of it happening but only rarely. Actually, the crow will keep hawks away. A crow will actually attack and chase a hawk out of its territory. I always welcome crows but keep my babies in tractors until they are large enough to not be lunch like 10 weeks roughly...I still watch them but I worry less at that age. Is there anyway you can temporarily provide them with cover? Maybe decrease their roaming area for a few weeks? The crow really will help you later on and I would not want to kill him if you can avoid it.
Crows will carry off baby chickens. I've seen them do it. But as the others said, crows are great to have around because they're great hawk deterrents. We encourage the crows here by feeding them (not baby chickens!) We just make sure that the area where our babies are, are secure. Laurie
My sister an I watched from her house a crow attack and kill 3 of my moms 2 week old cornish x it was horrible. By the time my sister got down there it had eaten 2 of they're heads... Just a horrible bird. I'd be really careful with a crow. The one we had was a thrill killer we think. So yes in my opinion they are a chick predator.
Absolutely, crows prey on chicks. I would consider fencing off a smaller area of your run just for the moms and babies and at least cover that one area with some bird netting. If the crow is foolish enough to try to breach that netting, it will get so tangled up it won't be able to do any harm unless one of chicks gets in harms way while the crow is thrashing about. While I agree that crows can offer a benefit in driving off hawks and eagles, I'm not sure it outweighs the risk of the crow being a carrier of mites, lice, avian virus, or gapeworm to my flock. Personally, I'm going to do everything I can to prevent wild birds of any kind from mingling with my chickens. I don't want them building nests, eating out of feeders, or roosting in and around the run. It's their poo, dander, and cast-off feathers that does the damage - the vehicle for delivering disease and pestilence to the coop and run.
