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And don't forget one other nasty bird...the Scrub Jay!! They kill baby chicks just for the sport of it. I had one find a small enough gap in the fencing, that I missed, and it managed to get in and kill the babies, except one. It was easy to tell what had happened by seeing where the baby chicks were in relation to their feeder. They were in the farthest corner they could get, of their pen, and away from the feeder. The scrub jay had the feeder to himself, but he never ate any feed. Just made me sick

thanks david, great idea, i'll try that do you think i will get magpies aswell, cause i dont want to kill them, we have befriended the magpies and dont want to hurt them.

Unfortunately while my idea would (probably) work it would also be very indiscriminate. It is just a likely to trap a magpie or a number of other birds as a crow. Given that you have ‘friendly’ magpies I would recommend either do not try it or use it with a lot of care.

David

I think I have figured out why the crows are a problem now. The baby chicks I have now are from a hatchery. So the chicks have no mother hen to protect them. All my previous baby chicks were raised by hens and they are extremely protective of their babies. The hens, roosters and teenages do give a damn about the new chicks.
It does suck though, I think all my Araucana's are wiped out by the crows. I have no idea what I have left. Some are silver, gold and colombian wyannedots, and also mille fleur and golden seabrights bantams. I sure hope I still have an araucana left.

what a shame to loose so many chicks to crows, they are so nasty.
is there any way you can keep the chicks fully covered until there a bit bigger?
i hope you dont lose any more!!!

ive seen crowns take my baby ducks that were a few days old and just to be mean they fly really high up and drop them on hard surfaces like streets ,drive ways and even on our cars

I'm in Tasmania, and I had bemoaned the crows for years, until I saw them chase off a goshawk! I've seen them do this three times now, and I think their egg-thefts are reasonable payment for their guarding the chickens from the hawks. They are my "guard-crows"!! J.

I use to hunt the crows here. but I stopped because they chase the hawks and owls off.

When I see crows around I know there isnt any hawks or owls in the general area.

Charlie

Interesting what preditory creatures you've all got that like a feast of chicken and or eggs. We're pretty lucky in NZ. No snakes, no foxes, but that doesn't mean we don't have a few problems. The varmits we have are introduced. Australian possums, which may be vegetarian in Australia, have adapted rather well to our climate, have no natural preditors, carry TB, eat native bird eggs, and graze the canopy of flowers and seed of our precious native bush. We have some wild ferret, but ferret are now illegal to keep as pets unless sterilized and will soon be obsolete. Stoats British imports eat our ground nesting native birds eggs. Australian magpies which are pretty aggressive in the breeding season, are not liked in the south, but I think they are beautiful birds and I love their singing. They make great pets, and will talk very well. Harrier hawks, also an Australian import are probably the biggest threat, but it's amazing how strong the self preservation instinct is in hens here. They will run for cover and let out a warning even if a harmless seagull should fly overhead. We do have Norwegian rats, but there tends to be plenty of fruit to tempt their pallets and I have never had problems with them. I lock my hens in at night but they have free range of the back yard during the day. Preditors here would be more likely to be the two legged human variety. Some chooky breeders have had problems with their breeding birds being stolen and not for breeding either.

I love crows. We all hate peditors who hunt our flocks, so my pens enclosed, they free range when i'm home and about, and our dog always leaves presents for us like dead possums...... anyways crows are in the corvus family, very smart, if you leave a fake crow statue on the ground- on its side, as if it was dead, they will circle the area and leave w/o landing. might help? better then a smelly decomposing body.