I have had chickens for 1 year & today was my first real predator attack. We have a lot of Ravens, Eagles, Owls & Hawks in our neighborhood. The Ravens were always the least of my concern but today that all changed. I had one Raven that went after my chickens 5 times today. As far as I know this is the first time this has happened. Luckily I was working from home today & heard the hens making a terrible noise. By the time I got outside there were feathers everywhere but she was uninjured. The aerial attack continued off & on today. I do not have a covered run for the girls but the run is filled with fruit trees & this has always given me some sense of security. I do not have time until this weekend to build anything substantial so they will need to hang out in the coop & the small space (4 x 5) underneath while I am at work. There are only 4 hens so hopefully they can cope with it till I get home to let them out while I can supervise. Has anyone heard of Ravens attacking chickens before or is this just a Rouge Raven? Thanks!
Like their smaller cousins the crows, ravens tend to be territorial and mischief. They also have a voracious appetite for stealing eggs, chicks and other small animals.
Ravens are predators. the trees that shade your run also give them a nice perch to take cover in as they scope out your girls. In a Sheep!! magazine I read, Ravens are considered a dangerous predator on new born lambs, they attack at birth and peck the lambs eyes out. I hope your girls don't stay too mad at you while cooped up in the coop until you can cover their run.
I had the same problem last summer. There is a pair of ravens that live around my house and for some reason they hate my ducks! I only let my birds out of their runs when I am home so I haven't had a real problem with it, but I too found it quite bizarre. They would circle the house a bunch of times causing the ducks to panic and then fly down and pluck feathers. Ravens are extremely intelligent and I think they just do it for fun to be quite honest. Try to keep the peace because ravens will drive of any owls and hawks they see. The ravens have been around all winter but now that I have a big "guard" turkey, they haven't tried to mess around!
Hi, I am down on whidbey island and we actually have a pair of nesting ravens (and their young from past years) who have done a great job protecting out chickens, ducks and geese by chasing away ariel predators and alerting us to coyotes etc. for us it is a two way relationship though. ravens are predators naturally prey on nestlings, eggs and even small wild birds (saw ours get a chipmunk once too). We selected a place (an old stump on the edge of the woods) and have been feeding them excess eggs, giblets etc, which has gotten them to spend a lot of time around our property (and chase away all eagles, hawks and owls) and seems to have given them the idea that our birds are not an appropriate food choice. they have yet to try to attack or eat any of our free ranging birds. One of them did have a standoff the other day with one of our geese over and egg that the goose had just laid in the middle of the orchard. a year old young raven might be your culpret. they can be a bit too bold sometimes. One did try to steal eggs from a broody muscovy duck one time and we actually had to rescue the raven from the muscovy who had beaten it up pretty badly. You might try feeding them or chasing them away if you see them go at your birds again (although they are smart so they will probably just learn to harass the chickens when your not around if you do this.
