How to scare crows away from chickens?

16 years ago

Hi,

I'm the owner of chickens in our backyard, having a bit of crow problem recently...

We have enclosed chicken run (fenced both wall & ceiling) along to the chicken coop for our girls. We also let them run around in extended fenced area (this area only has wall fence, no ceiling fence) during the day time since the risk of predators are low in this area. They love it! :)

However, a couple of days ago, I found one crow somehow got into the chicken run thru a tiny chicken-size door, couldn't find his/her way out, fleaking out him/her self as well as our chickens who happened to be in chicken run/coop at the time...

I opened the human-size door of the chicken run, the crow eventually flew outside of it... This made me think that I would need to do something about this problem.

I may be too worried, but I heard crows could carry west nile virus. I wouldn't like to have them around our chickens all the time (the reason the crow got in to our chicken run would be to get the leftover food scraps we feed our chickens every morning...).

Is there effective way to scare crows away??

I know regular birds don't like shiny stuff moving such as CD disk on string, but I've heard crows are actually attracted to the shiny things...

Any help/advices will be appreciated!

Thanks,

-b

Featured Answer

more_to_grow

16 years ago

Like lucky7 stated they work great at chasing of birds of prey, I have been baiting the crows to the area since last summer when a pair of Red Tails set up out in the forest near my home, they come in for cracked corn, broken eggs and other tidbits.

As for your problem, keeping feed out of sight should work quite nicely as they wont waste time if there is no food available.

Comments (8)

dirtslinger2
16 years ago
I imagine the best thing would be to keep the feed out of sight. Maybe feed morning/night only until the crows take off.

I've found them so smart, they won't waste time if there is no chance of getting a reward.
lucky7
16 years ago
dirtslinger is right,taking the feed out of sight will discourage them and they are intelligent. Because of where I live, I've had to learn to live with them . I have an old stump at the far end of our property away from the chickens that I put an old egg or some kind of offering for them , they take it and go and don't seem to bother the chickens, the benefit of them is they are like watchdogs in the sky. They'll chase off any bird of prey immmediately, I've seen them do it more than once.
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brendan_of_bonsai
16 years ago
Corvids are smart, eventually they will find their way out.
mersiepoo
16 years ago
That is a great idea (for the crow bait)! I like crows, they are the least of my gardening troubles. :) They are so smart! I've heard a lot of good stories about them.
Beeone
16 years ago
If you remove the food during daylight hours, the crows will stop feeding in the chicken coop. Try feeding it inside the chicken house or somewhere the crows can't see/find it. You may still end up with a few resident crows nesting in the trees in the area, but not hoards pestering the chickens.

The best cure I've found to remove crows is a .22. One shot, one dead crow, several thousand take flight and leave. A few days later, one shot, one dead crow, several thousand take flight, no more flocks of crows for the winter. Only have the occasional nesting crow in the summer instead of the hoards we get in the winter. When a pair moves in and starts to nest, I just knock the nest out of the tree before they have gotten very far so as not to disrupt them too much but to get the message across that this is not a nesting place. Once or twice of this and they will move elsewhere so they aren't bothering the other birds, hawks, and people so much. Crows are smart and don't take too many lessons to figure out where they aren't welcome and whether you mean business.
chiaki0730
Original Author
16 years ago
Hello everyone!

Thanks for all your advices and tips. I'm sorry I couldn't reply you sooner...

It seems like the best way is to take the food out of their sight. I'll start doing it today!

I see two crows all the time, they might be nesting around here. Since all the trees here are really tall (60'-80') fir/cedar trees, I can't even see where their nest is.

I'll try to live with them since they are not attacking our chickens... ;)

many thanx!
-b
chenchen0226_gmail_com
12 years ago
http://www.crowaway.com.au/

they sell crow CD to make them fly away.