Ravens running a protection racket in my chicken area

[Waffle Wattles]

Many ravens about, but two of them have taken a keen interest in my chickens who have a 1/4 acre of fenced in space to pick and scratch. I have witnessed on two occasions them fly off with an egg because some of my hens insist on laying outside.

Thing is, when a hawk comes by, they fight them off and cone back and roost up around the chickens.

I'd rather lose an egg or two a day than a chicken but think I can skinny them a bit and keep their protection.

I dont want them eating my chickens eggs however my 8 year old suggested we buy eggs from the store and give the ravens one of those a day.

The hens are nesting in these tree stump areas, live oak, where shoots are sprouting out. I can easily cut this down, deter nesting those areas, get them scooted back into the nesting box hopefully, but pay the ravens off to keep them interested in protecting the chickens.

 

[azygous]

Protection racket, all right. Ravens and crows run their own racket here where I am. Only it's mice they accept as payment for protection. And they do an excellent job, too.

Most recently, a hawk stopped by, landed in a pine beside the run, and scared off my two roosters who ran and hid out behind a fence on the far side of the yard. Within minutes, a raven flew in and landed on an adjacent tree top. No kerfuffle, no conflict. The raven simply remained on the tree top until the hawk decided to leave, never to return.

 

[Waffle Wattles]

Exactly, its well worth keeping them around, and its awesome watching them drive hawks off. They are bit chatty, but who cares?

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

I love seeing crows chase the hawks away.

 

[cmom]

Here the crows aren't as fussy. I put different things out for the crows, mostly bread which they take over to their bird bath and dunk it in the water.

 

[Waffle Wattles]

Here the crows aren't as fussy. I put different things out for the crows, mostly bread which they take over to their bird bath and dunk it in the water.

The ravens have over played their hand it appears, the hens are choosing indoor laying more and more. The roll away has never been so full. A few are still laying outside, but they are giving each other support as the ravens stalk them. Im still feeding the ravens an egg or two but now am thinking of moving the eggs away from the run. The chickens don't like them.

 

[cmom]

I had an issue originally with the crows getting eggs. I covered all of my pens with good heavy duty netting which solved that issue and golf balls in all of the nest boxes and the birds started laying much better in the nest boxes and now rarely do I find an egg outside. In one coop I was having an issue with the nest boxes. The birds wouldn't lay in them and I was constantly picking up eggs off of the ground. I change out the next boxes with a community nest box I made from scrap wood and now they all lay in it.