Author Topic: Crows - again (Read 12444 times)

mentalmilly · « **Reply #15 on:** April 15, 2015, 06:00:35 pm »

We made a scarecrow out of old clothes stuffed with bits and bobs and put a hat on it, big eyes and lipstick and it worked like magic to keep the starlings and crows from stealing food, next to the chuck huts, chucks didn't mind a bit. Hanging dead birds around didn't work with us for longer than a week.

HesterF · « **Reply #16 on:** April 28, 2015, 04:59:31 pm »

Well I've officially given up and just bought a trap! We have had scarecrows - interestingly they pecked the faces off! - we have fishing line all over the run, we have had a man with a gun (keeps them off while he's here but not for much longer), we've hung up corpses, we've had bangers, we have had a terror kite, we have those rotating face things that look like big birds of prey faces, I've put in fake eggs (they peck them all and throw out the fakes and fly off with the real ones), I've put in hardboiled eggs coated with mustard (they just peck through the mustard). A broody will keep them off but not reliably and a bit of a waste of a broody.

Meantime if I don't check for eggs every hour or two, I lose every single chicken egg. Which is a complete nightmare. Not enhanced by the fertility of the eggs I do get being dodgy (sorry Stereo!).

So my only remaining feasible option is traps. I'm going to bait with eggs to begin with but I guess if I catch a live one, I can keep it happy and healthy and hope to catch a few more. And then kill them all

. Cue maniacal laughter.

Stereo · « **Reply #17 on:** April 29, 2015, 01:38:46 pm »

You've got some smart crows there. I had big problems with my welsummer house last year but so far this year, no issues. I built a rollaway system for the Light Sussex house which works well except now I have rats getting in there and eating the eggs. Not nice if I get up there in the evening and open the hatch to see a couple rats. I think it's because I've changed all my feeders to treadle types which has cut off their main food source.

What sort of trap did you get in the end?

HesterF · « **Reply #18 on:** April 29, 2015, 03:01:51 pm »

I've gone for a Larsen trap - can't really picture how it works but willing to try anything at this point!

Notasausage · « **Reply #19 on:** May 05, 2015, 08:48:43 pm »

We make the entry to the nesting area as complicated as possible, unless you're a chicken! It consists of an old dog crate at the back of a stable with the entry to the crate facing the wall and blocked at one side and the top. The door to the stable is wedged so a chicken can just get in. Seems to make it too risky for the crows to consider.

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #20 on:** May 05, 2015, 09:58:33 pm »

If it's the larsen trap with one large compartment with 2 adjoining (not sure if the name is used with other styles)
you don't use the large bit till you have the decoy,
ours has 2 'gates' on the top of the 2 small sections, make a nest in the bottom with eggs as bait.
we use 2 half sticks which prop the gate open across the bottom. when the crow lands on the stick it gives in the middle, crow drops to the floor while gate flips shut. crow caught, first crow can than be transfered to bigger compartment, (use thick gloves!), where there should be a perch, food and water. sometimes better if you bring a crow in from a different area. some people clip wing feathers in case they get out.
just been talking to gamekeeper today, he just uses one stick but it holds the gate open slightly differently.
You have to be prepared to kill them once caught, either shoot with air rifle or neck them, some people think it's OK to let them go some miles away!

Hope this gives you some idea, sorry I'm not better at explaining
We've had 4 magpies in as many days, hopefully stop them multiplying before they start!

HesterF · « **Reply #21 on:** May 05, 2015, 11:23:48 pm »

Thanks both! I don't credit my hens with many brains so I think anything they can work out will be a breeze for crows (and they're a lot bigger than crows too!). The trap is yet to arrive but hopefully it'll be more obvious once it's here. I was going to kill them (bar the decoy) in the same way I do the chickens. Now I'm so annoyed with them, I don't think I'll have a problem. We had a couple of lads over at the weekend with shot guns. They got one pigeon whilst the crows stayed away. While we stood talking at the bottom of the field, just out of range, in swooped four or five crows again straight off.

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #22 on:** May 06, 2015, 02:05:10 am »

How about a scarecrow that looks like its holding a gun, moving it often of course?
I think hens are very clever, they just don't like us to know it

winkhound · « **Reply #23 on:** May 06, 2015, 08:30:39 am »

Quote from: verdifish on April 01, 2015, 08:28:36 pm

Don't Larsen and ladder traps have to be registered with police ,sspca / rspca

The RSPCA are nothing more than a charity having no more powers than you or I, they do not need telling anything.

If crows Larson traps will work, you could be amazed at how many you trap. If trapping slows it can sometimes work to swap call birds with neighbors. If rooks are a problem then ladder traps are very effective, but please be careful with non target species.

If you can find nesting sites they can be controlled this way.

All you have to remember is if they are clever enough to steal eggs and get away with it, then they will not be shot or trapped without dedication and persistence.

Stereo · « **Reply #24 on:** May 06, 2015, 08:28:19 pm »

I think they've started on mine again. Started finding broken shells out in the fields. Most of my runs are in a group with a space in the middle so I plan on setting up a temporary hide there which they can get used to. I'll have them this year. Also might get some scraps together and knock up a ladder trap.