The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: lord flynn on May 14, 2014, 09:36:36 pm
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having a bit of a week! (gape worm birds all much improved).
I have been diligently collecting eggs from the last week from my three best hens and setting them for incubation this week. One of my lot went broody and has been sitting tight for a few days, even after moving her. Last night I gave her 10 eggs to sit on and this morning, she seemed happy-making lots of happy broody noises. When I got home today-she'd gone back to the main house in the adjacent run. eggs gone. completely gone-bedding still clean and intact-nary a sign of shell etc. I was at a loss-all the chickens were accounted for, no sign of egg eating and besides, only the broody was in there-it was partitioned off and she's about the only one that can fly in and out. So I was thinking stoats or rats :-\
It wasn't until later that I noticed a crow in the willow tree in the pen (not unusual). It then flew onto the roof, then onto the ground and hopped into the spare house (its actually a small duck house that I used for growers usually) to have a look! It then caught sight of the two eggs I left in the run on top of the feeder in the run next door-hopped over the fence, up onto the feeder and nicked one and flew off! I'm not sure if Gollum would have protected eggs or not but he couldn't get in that run either. I guess she left the nest for a while and the crows moved in-they are always about, big rookery by farm about 1/2 mile away. bloody things, I have some coming from a breeder on sat to go in the incy and this was going to be my last hatch this year and really wanted some off these three as well.
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I'm getting this problem with them too. They were stealing food, but now the eggs are disappearing too. They fly off as soon as I open the window to take a shot (yet ignore me when I bang on the window or sound my horn if in the car. Will be setting a cage trap tomorrow with eggs in it. Meant to do it just now but too much effort.
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I totally sympathise - we're having a similar problem. Not only do the crows pinch the chickens eggs, but the ducks eggs too. The crows actually go into our chicken coop and nab the eggs out of the nest boxes. We're designing a type of porch thing with a side entrance to go in front of the pop hole to try and deter them. They don't like not having a clear, quick exit for a speedy getaway!
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Same here. I topped up all feeders and drinkers last night as I wasn't going to be able to get to the hens until late today. My Welsummer pen who have been laying 8-10 per day I got 1 egg today. Plus one broken but without shell in the nest box. Light Sussex also 1 egg from 9 birds and that was under the broody. I've seen crows flying up over the last few days. I think tomorrow is Air Arms S200 time for my egg eating friends. Going to stake them out for an hour and take them down.
Next job is rollaways so they can't get them in the first place.
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I've had the same, but they are taking duck eggs. I think it is because the ducks have a shed and the door is larger than the chicken house. Some of the ducks do chase them off if they try and eat the food.
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for my broody/breeding area i have covered the pens in a light garden mesh (10quid in b&q) after loosing a couple of chicks to i believe magpies!!!
in future even if i get more space all my breeding areas will be covered to protect against predators.
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The crows are stealing my duck eggs too. I have been collecting them when I can but now have quite a few and OH hasn't made the incubator yet :(
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I would normally have a broody in the ark with the secure pen I currently have growers in-the growers are going this weekend so would have moved that for the broody + chicks then. I just didn't twig the crows would go in the coop for the eggs.
covered pens are a pain in the butt Bloomer-had them at the last place, they are alot of work to keep them good. Arguably not as hard work as losing eggs/youngsters to crows though! I've used bird mesh alot and hate the darn stuff-on a windy hillside its very irritating.
one project this year is to build a secure pen for youngsters but it will have to be dug in-when you see our place you'll understand ;D
how to scare off crows? I do now have a cat but they will be in for another week or so-not sure a crow will be put off by a cat though.
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Cage trap set in the little hen house, fingers crossed! But they're so darn clever, won't be at all surprised if they avoid it!
I have netting above some of the pen, but the bit by the (two story) house is uncovered as the gate and things catch on it. I'm in no state to be climbing up to put new support and net up -37week pregnant and massive!
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I have put a run on the out side of the houses and all fine so far..
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would a decoy owl work?
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would a decoy owl work?
I have no idea but I have a metal heron. I might try that I guess there is nothing to loose
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Cage trap set in the little hen house, fingers crossed! But they're so darn clever, won't be at all surprised if they avoid it!
Well, to get rid of crows, you just need to put a trap in there, not seen one since it was installed.
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would they be fooled that a dog crate is a trap lol?!
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would they be fooled that a dog crate is a trap lol?!
No they are not fooled, it has to be a trap. :-J
But how hard could it be to secure a string to an egg inside the crate, with string running to a trigger pin that is holding open the door? -I'm sure you could improvise a trap from the crate, and then you'll be able to keep all your lovely eggs! :)
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I lost 2 doz. last weekend to the crow. If I find a dead one my brother told me to hang it up and the others will give the barn a wide berth.
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Same problem here, they've been at it since the season started. My worst nightmare is that they leave half eaten eggs and the hens think "That's tasty" >:( , so I'm cruising the garden all day long but only find empty shells..
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Larson trap works a treat I had this problem eBay Larson trap bait with eggs by the time you catch a few the others soon get the point....
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just remember if you trap them you have to kill them quickly and humanely so that needs to be planned for.
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You have to blast the nests erley on . 2 shots for a big nest the onley way becouse its been a mield spring .
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Lots of crows this year. I haven't got around to dealing yet but on days where I can't get up to the pens, I am losing all the eggs. My pen of Welsummers are laying 10-11 a day and if I don't get up 'till 4 they are all gone. I can't afford that. Wed looks fine so hides will be built tomorrow and death will happen then. A few of them set up on V sticks will keep the rest away.
It's not their fault, they are only doing what they do. Problem is they are clever buggers so most fixes don't work.
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Here they "just" get the eggs from outdoor attempts at nesting. Do the crows (or magpies) go into the bird houses in your place? I've heard that maybe a curtain in front of the nesting boxes helps (worked wonders here for other reasons like egg eating hens and bullying).
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I have curtains for the nesting boxes in my big coop-they aren't getting in there right now. In the paddock I rent a couple of miles away I have three fledgling crows on the grass but can't bring myself to dispatch one and hang it up :-[
I am a bit :/ about the amount of starlings we have too-they are the number one wildlife reservoir for gapeworm apparently.
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I feed my cats in the feed room every morning. they have been acting hungry over the past week . Turns out once I leave the building and come back into the house the crow drops in, chases both cats away and eats all the food. I watched on camera this morning. Can't get the eggs anymore so has moved onto the poor cats.
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I am so sorry to hear that. Last week it was the same, I had a broody hen and a crow kept on scaring her off her eggs, because of that the eggs did not hatch and then because of that crow, or should I say magpie, hatching was an absolute disaster, no alive chicks and a hen which has wasted her whole time. With broody hens I would recommend buying a broody hen house and putting it in a garage or building where you can keep an eye on her and she would be safe from the weather and crows, or magpies.
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Absolutely right, WBF. We have a spare eglu on long-term loan which serves as prison for bullies, hospital wing or maternity ward. Last year 2 hatches of ducklings were born in there and should that hens' nest in the shed turn into a sitter hopefully some chicks this year :fc:
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yes, as I said-I do normally but it was being used for growers that were due to go a couple of days later and was trying to strike while the broody was hot ;) lesson learned-have 20 in the incy now and thats it for this year.
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Aye, it gives you an idea of the kind of hell corvids play with the rest of the wild bird population. Egg robbing little sods.
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ah good its not just me then :rant:
actually sat and watched a hoodie crow pop into the duck house and another in the hen house, and pop back out with eggs in the beaks, despite having 100 chickens in the vicinity, they don't scare them away!
going to bait a nest and get them with the air rifle i think!
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The crows (and rooks and jackdaws) have gone back to only eating the cocks food. It is only a few birds that come here and go into the pens. They know the eggs are in traps and are too wise to them. I want to sit with the air riffle, but I struggle to stay in one place for long enough for them to come in. I've got to get on top of these birds.
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For those without the benefit of a shotgun or Larsen trap mustard eggs can work. Blow a few eggs (you can use the innards to make cakes or scramble them) by twirling a skewer into each end - open the holes up a bit then prod the skewer around to break up the yolk, which makes it easier to blow the contents through. Then get creative and half fill with a mixture of English mustard and whatever else you fancy - my preference is for extra hot chilli powder. Only problem is that you have to make sure they get only mustard eggs for a while, so you need to keep the hens shut in or be very careful about collecting eggs. These work for egg-eating hens too.
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good tip MF except I am at work most days :(
I am in luck-dead fledgling crow in ponies' field, will endeavour to hang it u so we can't see it from the living room, if I still have a problem week after next, I'll be home and more able to take other measures.
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I've been staking them out and watching them doing it but I can't get close enough with the air rifle unless I build a semi permanent hide that they will get used to but it's all time. I'm seriously considering applying for a firearms certificate so I can get a .22LR with a silencer. We used to pop them up to 100 yards with Dad's old one and it was just a tap sound with sub-sonic ammo.
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By they way, anyone use rollaways? Do they still get the eggs? I'm looking at building these onto the current house but I think the rollaway area would need to be pretty deep or they'll just stick that long beak in there.
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Lost five duck eggs today, when I left them in a flower pot whilst I went to feed the pigs.
So tomorrow the gun comes out.
:farmer:
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Now they're after my new chicks. They are in the greenhouse with mum, (would have been in a run, but windy and bit cold here today.) crows sitting on fence, walking round it, peering in at them. I can only sit for about 20 mins before my feet ache, and it's windy, so not sure I would get a good shot, so no joy with the air rifle. Thinking some home made crow traps are on the menu for this afternoon.
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I've been at home nursing a cold today-been watching the crows sitting around my pen all day. So tonight I got the dead fledgeling crow and hung it up in the willow tree as high as I could. Although there were no crows in sight when I hung it up, in less than a coupe of minutes there were literally 40-50 circling around the tree-taking it in turns to swoop in very close to the dead bird and two large groups formed in the cattle field, on the ground next door. When the last one swooped by close they then all took off and flew off towards the rookery down the road. Interesting behaviour to see-hope they've taken the hint!
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I've got a couple jackdaws hanging in my sussex and welsummer runs now and it seems to be having some effect. Unfortunately I haven't had a pop at the crows yet who are actually taking the eggs so jackdaws had to do.
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well it works for the crows at least, bladdy starlings not so much! but no eggs stolen.
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I had a magpie hanging around the garden, for a few weeks now, and today I saw it trying to eat a hens egg.
When I shooed it away I found that it was trying to get the egg out of one of the slats in the floor. Hilarious really, because before I shooed it away I saw lots of straw being thrown into the air by its beak.
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We've got loads of magpies up in the field. I think they are the ones breaking the eggs in the nest boxes, where the crows are carrying them off. Just need to keep on picking up at the moment. Bit freaked out as one of the jackdaws I hung up has vanished. It was inside a 50m electric fence. All the hens are fine. So I guess a buzzard or other raptor took it.
Might try a larsen trap next.
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It's been driving me mad too but a fellow smallholder gave me a fab tip which has worked and we've not lost any eggs since. Get a couple of eggs, use a pin or similar to make a hole to blow out most of the contents and inject/replace with mustard and then put back into the place where the crows pinch them from. I used Sellotape to try and stop the mustard leaking out but with hindsight will use super glue if I have to do it again! The crows fly away with the eggs and get a horrible shock - it's brill!
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Whoops, just read Marches Farmer reply - at least that's 2 folk that says it works!
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That worked for me when my chickens went through a naughty phase ;) .
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Jesus H Christ......."lace them with rat poison".........heard it all now. The only thing that would achieve is a knock on your door from the local plod. Do not do that under any circumstances. When the local Kite and Buzzard population starts to fall out of the trees having eaten a poisoned crow at least they will know where to come and look !!
GSH
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Yea sorry wasn't thinking straight. :'( By the way I have never, for the record, laced them with rat poison. Mustard is good to lace them with, however picking the right moment could be difficult. Maybe building a poultry pen for the hens could protect them and their eggs. I have a friend who has had a massive poultry pen built to keep out the foxes, however cost would be an issue too. :(
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We've been having huge problems with crows too. They take all the poultry food, have just moved onto eggs as well as pulling out all my baby sweetcorn and pumpkins, courgettes, gourds etc. (literally every single one - planted inside the chicken enclosure, inside another fence to keep the chickens out). We had somebody round to try and shoot them twice and he got a handful which were duly strung up - they took no notice. They also ignore the various bird scaring devices except to peck out the eyes of the smallest scare crow (interesting psychology!). Our latest trial which is certainly slowing them down a bit is to string fishing line across the top of the run. We have a huge run (40m x 70m) so there are big gaps in between that they can get in through but they can't see the line very well so they don't know where to go. I think we need a bit more up there but at least one bird has hit the line so far (and broken it - you need stronger than 12lb!) and at the moment they're all hanging round the edge of the run trying to work out what to do next! It doesn't hurt them but scares them enough to think twice and hopefully go for a safer meal elsewhere. Will keep you posted whether it continues to work or whether we have to find another approach!
H
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thats interesting HesterF, sorry you're having so many problems though. My hung up crow has disintigrated somewhat so they've been back around again-they have fledgelings to feed. The fishing line might just work on my pen but I guess we might have to move it regularly so they don't figure it out?
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it seems a worse year than any others here, too. The benefits for me of no eggs staying long outdoors - no broody ducks and no surprise ducklings (couldn't cope with another load just now)...
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Should also say we have two cats that are great hunters and they keep the rabbits down but no effect on the crows.... I think we'll have to move the line regularly otherwise they will change their routes in and out.
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We figured out that the sudden appearance of so many more hungry crows this year is due to our neighbours having "harvested" their quite extensive woods up the hill so they all came down here for the nearest larger trees....
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I have been using fishing line with cd's strung along it. The cd's shimmer in the light and swing around. The crows still haven't gone away but they have been less of a problem.
I need to go through my cd collection to find some more
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Well we entangled quite a few crows - not very humane but they were all well enough to fly away after I rescued them (yes, I know - complete insanity, pay a man to shoot them and then rescue them from the fishing line, my logic was that they'd suffered enough and wouldn't come back although one did come back the next day!). Main issue with the method is that the crows end up so tangled, you have to cut the line and then you have to be very careful about collecting it all (we had a duck get tangled up in an end) - and you end up losing a lot of the protection very quickly. Problem is better but now we've also got a terror kite and have bought some bangers. Also managed to end up with free labour who will (apparently) be weeding the vineyard so he'll be around all day up there which hopefully will also deter crows.
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My family of crows arrived 2 years ago when my neighbour took down their nesting tree. Now that they use our trees they steal eggs when they can, the cat food and any bird food going for free. I hate killing wildlife but this is getting beyond a joke. I now feed the cats in another building and so far crows have not managed to get in. this morning at 5am Barnaby was outside my bedroom window asking for food ( he is a cat ) I had no sooner put out his dish, got back in bed when I heard a right racket. 4 crows attacked the cat to get his food. he ran for his life and there was me outside in my nightie, no slippers on yelling at the bloody things. :o
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We had this problem a couple of years aago and it turned out to be one male crow. If we know they're nesting nearby we hang out CDs and strips of foil on thin thread. Other thing that worked very well was a scarecrow made of a coathanger tied 18" from the top of a strong pole about 5 ft high. Dressed it in an old waterproof jacket (hood up) and trousers, leaned it against a gate or similar and just moved or rearranged it every time I passed by (which was 5 or 6 times day), so they didn't get habituated to seeing it there.
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crows seem to be after the feed now-the hens in the paddock are fed via a spring feeder. But I have just watched my remaining elderly hybrid chase them away bless her. I was considering moving her on this autumn to make room but on that basis, she can stay!