My home has become 'Crow Central' Why?

[Teila]

A post on another thread about Crows reminded me that I should probably update this thread.

We resolved the Crow problem! We moved 1,800 kilometres away! LOL

OK, so the Crows were not the reason we moved but no Crows here, so definitely an added bonus

Oh, and because there was no way I was going to be able to hand my girls over to someone else [heart breaking ], they got to go for a ride on a plane to their new, crow-less home

 

[AllenK RGV]

Anyone know anything about Crows? The black-feathered kind, not the noise made by rooster kind.

For a couple of years now, I have a small flock of 5 bantam girls, not much bigger than a Crow and in some cases, because of age, smaller.

I live in suburbia. There have always been a few Crows here and there but one or two, no trouble really except for the fact that they make noises that remind me of the movie Predator and I look up expecting to see a 'shimmering' figure lurking in the trees!

I have always been extra cautious with the chicks when they are tiny because I would not put it past a Crow to take one.

Anyway, the past couple of weeks, working away at my desk, I look out the window and have counted up to 15 Crows hanging around on my front lawn. No one else's lawn, just mine! They are in the trees out the front, in the back garden, drinking from the fish ponds .. they are noisy, annoying, damaging the trees and scaring my bantams!

My girls supervise free range every afternoon and longer on the weekends but their feeding is always done in the covered run so no food laying around attracting the Crows.

Why me? What am I doing to attract these noisy evil looking creatures? I am looking out the window now, getting the feeling I am soon to be the lead in the remake of Birds!!

Any thoughts on how I can get them to move on? Remembering that I live in suburbia and have neighbours to consider and local laws to comply with. Also, anything that I do to scare them is probably going to scare my girls also?

Anyone know if the numbers are just going to increase or maybe I am just a vacation spot and they might move on?

When I lived in Germany I saw many young nestling birds dragged off by Magpies and Ravens, by that Family of birds. If you can protect your flock from them then they should be wolcome. Otherwise they are a totaly predatory species.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Crows should not hurt your girls. In fact, they are an awesome hawk/owl deterrent! We welcome them to hang near the chickens. They are a natural enemy of hawks. Crows are pretty efficient scavengers and are not equipped to hunt anything larger than maybe a rat/mouse or small snake (and even then it is rare). Your girls will get used to them soon enough!

 

[canada-goose]

Like Chickerdoodle, we get lots of visiting crows. They like the water, and the leftovers the chickens get. They never attack anybody, so we let them stick around.

In exchange, they occasionally chase off hawks (even eagles!) for us.

 

[Teila]

Thank you for your thoughts GuineaFowling

Wow, your Scrub Jays sound determined and very lucky your keet was too heavy for them

I like your suggestions regarding the Tom Cat and dog. Unfortunately, we rent and I do not want to push my luck with the Landlord any more than I have in that they are happy for the cats to be inside cats and seem to love the chickens. I love dogs and still have not got over losing my beautiful companion of 13 years but we really could not afford another mouth to feed and more Vet's bills etc. As I said, good ideas and if I could, I would certainly be considering them.

I believe I am going to have to learn to live with my new feathered fiends (yep, fiends, not friends); maybe if I accept them they may back off on the intimidation tactics

Having said that, they are outside right now talking to each other. One in the tree has something recently deceased in it's beak but I cannot quite see what it is.

I do not think this tale is at an end just yet and will wait to see what the Murder of Crows has in store for me next!

 

[Manningjw]

With baby chicks around you really do have to be cautious. My dad had a young pigeon that he had hand fed due to it's parent's abandoning it at a young age. One day he had it in an exercise pen along with other young pigeons and crows flew down and killed it and started to feed on it.

 

[Teila]

Oh, how awful Manningjw

Yep, as I have mentioned, I definitely have not trusted them around any chicks in the past and luckily, do not have chicks at the moment.

I have never seen a Hawk around here and I know that does not mean that one opportunistic Hawk is not going to visit one day, I still wonder if I will ever get used to 15-16 Crows hanging around. Hopefully whatever is attracting them is not here all the time and they may just move away leaving a tolerable 2-3

I have watched them pick up the palm berries off the driveway so maybe that is what is attracting them and I can only hope that once the palm stops seeding, they go.

As I am not able to get any real life Crow enemies of my own and any scare tactics I try are just going to scare my bantams also; I may have to learn to live with it.

I know that people put rubber snakes on their roof to keep away birds and others use the plastic Owl trick; anyone have any ideas on something that may deter the Crows that I could 'park' on the front lawn?

 

[Teila]

Update:

It has been 5 days since my last post and I have not been pecked to death yet and they have not started trying to smash through the windows but they are still here!

Driving me insane!! They are so noisy! I was trying to talk to a client on the phone the other day and he was having a great laugh at my expense as he could hardly hear me over the noise and when I explained my predicament he had could not stop chuckling; should charge him extra for the entertainment factor lol.

It must be bad because even hubby noticed them and he pretty much gets into the work-zone and would not notice anything much going on unless someone was to disconnect the power!

Anyway, he tried hanging a couple of old CD's from the tree out the front. All that accomplished was to give the Crows a disco ball under which to continue their party!

On the up side, even though I am not allowed to have one, I could probably get a rooster and no-one would know ... no chance he could make more noise than these evil black sqwarkers that start way before the sun comes up!

We live in a single level home, with a double level home on either side of us; yesterday I was in the back garden and both neighbours roofs had about 10 crows each, all looking down, watching me .. scary stuff!

One was in the back garden the other day, pretty close to my 5 month old bantam cochin and he was bigger than she is!

Also, walking through the lounge room today, glanced over at the screen door and there is a beady eyed crow, standing there looking back at me.

Whatever wrong I did to invoke this feathered pestilence, I'm sorry, please call them off or send them back from whence they came!

 

[ChickenAndMore]

I once thought that I had a bad egg eater turns out it was a crow. He would sit in the trees and wait for the egg song and then fly in and eat it. I live out in the country so he didn't last long.

 

[Teila]

Gees, ChickenAndMore, they sure are fearless!

Luckily my run is wire covered and the girls home is not accessible to other birds. Funnily enough, when I first started this thread it was because the Crows were scaring my girls, the girls do not seem quite so bothered by them now .. just me who wants them gone I think!

If I lived in the country, we would not be having this conversation and I would be digging a hole for all the bodies or Googling Crow Soup recipes

I still have no idea why, now 16-20 Crows, have decided that they are going to live here. Still looking for ways to get rid of them that will not draw unwanted attention from the authorities and also not injure or harm any other critters, including my girls.

Truthfully, I wish the Crows no harm, just want them to find someone else to stalk