Symptoms of Crow Predation on Chicks?

[casportpony]

Before this year I never had any issues with crows going after my chicks and ducklings, but this year I have lost a few to them.

 

[centrarchid]

I've had no dice hunting, but no predations either. I did loose one fresh chick to a white oak snake but the snake got dispatched on a subsequent coop raid. I had caught him in the act but he got up in the wall space in the coop (the coop is a converted bunkhouse the migrant workers used to sleep in when the previous owner ran this farm). Five young guinea fowl keets have went missing, but I found them running with a wild turkey hen a couple of mornings later in the blueberry fields. I may or may not ever see them again. This is the first time its happened to me, but its a pretty normal occurrence other family members have observed for guineas to leave with wild turkeys.

I have found bear scat 40 yards behind the main coop and I did catch about a 300lb bear easing out of the blueberry fields last Monday morning, getting the last bit of this year's blueberries. I doubt a bear has been my culprit.

Are you by any chance located in the Apalachicola River watershed?

 

[centrarchid]

Before this year I never had any issues with crows going after my chicks and ducklings, but this year I have lost a few to them.

I have had crows go after chicken nest before hens went broody. Nests were located in pasture. The game hens adapted well by running crows, and other birds of American Robin size and better off. The crows were briefly getting away with consuming eggs. I was very surprised the hens figured out how to correct the problem. They simply kept foraging within a 100 foot radius of their nest and ran after crows when they came in.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Are you by any chance located in the Apalachicola River watershed?

East of the Apalachicola. I’m in the Suwannee watershed.

 

[centrarchid]

East of the Apalachicola. I’m in the Suwannee watershed.

Darn, home of the Suwannee strain of Coppernose Bluegill. I have had those. Want the Hand-paint Bluegill. Suwannee strain still cool.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Darn, home of the Suwannee strain of Coppernose Bluegill. I have had those. Want the Hand-paint Bluegill. Suwannee strain still cool.

Ah yes, your screen name. Do you raise North American natives for aquariums or do you study them? Or a hard core fisherman?

I have to admit I’ve never heard of a hand painted bluegill. I had to look them up.

I used to live further south on the peninsula near a lake in the St. Johns drainage called Orange Lake. It had the most beautiful big coppernose bluegills during summer spawns. The bulls are a vibrant black with purple stripes on the forehead and easily go over a pound. I have some stocked in my two farm ponds. On the next full moon I’ll catch some and send you some pics.

I used to be into aquariums, both freshwater and saltwater. For my freshwater tanks I loved collecting wild natives from weedy drainage ditches and creeks. We have all sorts of native subtropical tiny sunfish that make neat aquarium fish.

 

[centrarchid]

I work with several fish species, mostly for use as food-fish. Hobby still with natives and a few cichlids. I gave up the hard core fish when I had to start getting into the more detailed data collection. When it comes to what are collectively called Bluegill, I have likely seen things that no one else has seen. Also had some real fun collecting down in Florida,the Carolina's, Tennessee, and further north. It is great to still be alive.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

3 hens hatched out a dozen chicks between them back around July 1. They raised the brood together. Lost one chick within the first few nights to a grey rat snake (white oak snake as we call them). After that there were no more losses. The chicks are mostly independent now. One of the hens still keeps some tabs on them but for the most part they forage and roost on their own. A several nights ago I missed a chick when counting them in the coup after dark. One of the remaining 10 chicks had a fresh bloody head on the roost but was then ok. The head looked skinned or scalped like what I've seen when the adult hens get in bad fights with each other. I found the missing check dead in the run pushed into the wire. It looked as it if had been pecked or trampled to death against the wire. The fire ants had just got on it so it hadn't been there very long. I figured it died that evening about an hour before dark. I also figured that maybe some of the adults simply were getting aggressive with the chicks now that the momma hens were backing off their supervision of the chicks.

3 more chicks have since disappeared. One of the missing ones had a fresh bloody head a couple of days ago. I haven't found any more bodies but I've seen them fight in the distance. I haven't paid it much mind, figuring they're just doing what chickens do. I haven't seen any of the adults messing with them.

Let's presume for the sake of argument they're killing each other. If I let them be, which chicks will nature select? The toughest of the tough that pick and win the fights? Or the ones that simply avoid the fight?

I can't rule out my guineas either. My guinea flock has increased to 17 adults and sub adults. They're SOBs to the chickens. I could see them easily killing a sub-adult and eating it.

 

[cmom]

I would put up a camera to see what is going on. Good luck...

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The problem with a game camera is that the deaths are occurring during the day, the chickens are roaming about 5 acres of 40 acres, and there’s no set pattern or spot to cover. It would be complete luck of the draw if one of the events occurred in front of a camera. I have kept a baited dog-sized live trap behind the coop and there’s been no takers. I don’t believe its a varmint issue. I think its either still a stealthy hawk I haven’t seen, snakes, or them killing each other.