Murder of Crows

[DucksinOR]

Hi all,
I'm about at my wits end with crows! We have been having horrible trouble with crows eating our ducks' eggs. I found 5 broken and empty eggs today in our ducks area. The worst part is they are nesting in a row of firs in our neighbor's yard. Is there any other way than shooting the darn birds to make them leave!?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TLWR]

Is it possible to keep your ducks locked up until they have all laid their eggs? Collect the eggs and let them out.

I'm good with crows in our yard as they chase after the hawks that come by.

 

[DucksinOR]

Our ducks lay until early afternoon, so keeping them in their house would not be an option.

I do like that they keep hawks away, but not if they eat that many eggs! It will only get worse when their fledglings are hopping around with them eating even more eggs...

 

[kaumlauf]

Now don't laugh, but I have heard that you can frighten crows away by hanging a dead crow, wings outstretched, in the area you want them to leave alone. If you don't have one, you can make a decoy, or buy one. This advice comes from a neighbor who raises ducks. I have never tried it. You could trap a crow, buy setting a spring type rat trap, with an egg. You'd have to nail the wooden trap down or the crow will fly off with it attached to it's leg(s). Apparently crows are smart enough to fear being killed by whatever killed the other crow.

 

[3bird]

Apparently crows are smart enough to fear being killed by whatever killed the other crow.

..which is what makes your suggestion so disturbing.

 

[kaumlauf]

Yes...Highly intelligent creatures. It's a shame they prey on eggs and very young ducklings. Personally, I love crows.

 

[3bird]

Our farm is called Three Bird Farm and the "bird" is a crow (hence my avatar). The family that built this farm in the 19th century also created the Three Crow Spice brand. We have crows that nest in the white pine by our driveway every year, and the adults walk our back lawn like old men almost every morning. They do a pretty bang-up job of mobbing the owls and hawks around the perimeter of our property, but we certainly keep an eye on them when the ducklings are out in the garden. Bottom line is that we love them too...despite their love of ducklings/eggs.

 

[kaumlauf]

Pretty neat to have kind of history . Crows are pretty interesting birds. Not a bad bird to be named after. It doessn't look like you've gotten much response in how to deal with crows. Maybe put a a number of Eagle decoys...and change them around daily. Crows will probably learn they are fakes otherwise.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I like crows myself. I often see them running a hawk off.

If it were me I would put netting or some other lid on the duck run. No run? Then loss is inevitable by crow or some other visiting varmint.