RAVENS.... daytime predator.... feet and bones left! update

[HorseFeatherz NV]

They - ravens - are the worst! It is sport killing. My horse shoer has problems with them killing lambs, up to two weeks old.

I did not mind too bad when they stole eggs, even the goose eggs -- what a sight that is - about 5 feet off the ground is as much lift as they can get, you see this big black bird with a big white egg. But they hunt and kill the chickens

, luckily my border collie has started at least running towards the brat birds, plus the little birds who nest in our sage brush really attack the ravens - so I happily feed the smaller birds.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

To keep ravens & crows away, cut out the shape of "hanging crows" out of thin plywood, paint black & hang around the area. They think others are getting killed, & will leave the area alone. I wish I could post pics of mine, but DW is at work & only she knows how. I had crows eating eggs until I hung a decoy on the barn door. Stopped those thieves instantly.

 

[akcountrygrrl]

I had heard about stringing the fishing line over the run but until last year, I hadn't had any problems so my poultry pretty much had run of the yard. My first issue with the ravens came up when I moved a bunch of blue Swedish ducklings from their brooder to a grow off pen outside. The day after I put them in the pen, I came home from work to find nothing left but 3 legs. Now, all of my small poultry containment pens are completely enclosed but the main area where my adult poultry are is about 1 1/2 acres and not a whole lot of trees anymore (goats took care of that). So, I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to put my scare web up. In the mean time, I think I'm going to try out a Great Horned Owl decoy. The other thing I had heard of people doing with the fishing line is adding bright flashing beads and mylar tape to help scare the birds away.

I would think that even though they are a protected species, at some point "Defense of Life and Property" would come into play???? I still haven't figured out how they fall under the migratory bird act. The ones around here sure don't migrate to anywhere except the woods to my yard and back again.

 

[Hillsvale]

I would love to leave our border collie out while at work but I think he would get bored and get into mischief....

We made a web out of fishing line and plot marking tape... we shall see!

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
I tried the string thing over my Mulberry Trees when it looked like the wild birds were eating more berries then were falling to the chickens. What you do is get a partner and toss a spool of black thread back and forth over the tree-----it worked, but not like I thought it would. Birds would get caught in the thread and hang there till they died and decomposed-----it did keep the other birds away, but some of the caught birds weren't what should of been caught and they took a few days to die!

 

[akcountrygrrl]

I don't have enough trees to do that. Therein lies the problem. I could web it on the top of the fence but then I'd have the goats getting caught in it and tearing it apart.

 

[sourland]

If one raven would happen to die in sight of the others, they would stay away. As you probably know, they are extremely intelligent.

 

[NateinFL]

Who would have thought?? Wow,the ones in FL are not as big as the ones in the pic, I think the heat keeps them small, just like the deer and squirrel are smaller down here than up North. The Cooper's Hawks are the same size though

 

[pgpoultry]

We have a real problem with ravens in Wales. The buzzards and red kites, traditional predators,never give us a problem at all as they are shy, but crows, particularly ravens are a menace.

Like others, we have had them attacking young lambs and even pecking out the eyes of sick sheep before they had died.....YUK!

The Border Collie is a good idea.We have a Border Collie....his mission in life is to chase anything which appears to be aggressing anything else. He HATES crows and loves it that we actually shout 'Get it Jared' as soon as one appears (named after Jared Leto by my daughter.......). Though he very rarely barks, you can guess if you hear furious barking the crows are about. Also he is super-tolerant to chickens, even sharing his bed with them regularly whenever it rains (To be honest, they usually steal his bed and he lies out in the rain). Must post a picture of this........it's bizarre!

Sandie

 

[joebryant]

Ravens? Ravens? I thought that I was aware of all the predators that could get my chickens. Now I have to add ravens to the list. What's next?