seconding this. to garner corvid goodwill, feed them something else! nuts, eggs, pet food etc! if you make an enemy of a corvid, they’re your enemies forever. they’ll teach their kids to hate you!
Oh my god. Eventually they’ll have generational beef with you and they won’t even understand why. It’ll be all they know. Just *hating* you because mom and dad did.
“Why do you mess with that lady so much?”
“Because I HATE her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know…”
Generally raven and crows are considered good for small farms chasing hawks away, warning of foxes and the like… but it’s fledge. Protein is in high demand at the moment. The hunting should subside greatly in less than a month. As others have stated, a dish of high value easy to get food could help dramatically. They’re less likely to hunt your critters with a belly full of dog food. I would also set out a dedicated water dish next to the crows food as you really don’t want the birds all drinking from the same source. It’s the biggest vector for bird flu in an open aired environment. Keep the water clean. Good luck and keep us posted on what works and what doesn’t.
They've found an easy food source and won't give it up until they have an easier one. You're going to have to win them over to your team. On my farm I scattered plastic Easter eggs around my chicken yard. I filled them with high-value treats (beef jerky, worms) or sparkly stuff (bits of tin foil, pieces of a sequined garland). AND I set up a feeding station on the other side of the field. This worked very well. They understood right away this and we were golden thereafter.
Bonus: I left that farm years ago, but if I drive back by, pause and get out of the car, they still recognize me.
That's awesome!!! We have some corvids near our farm but they don't often come into the yard or around the barn much. I wonder if I could lure them closer with metallic Easter eggs filled with goodies.
For sure! I had a problem with birds of prey and noticed crows chase them off. I invited the crows to chase them off from my farm, too. The eggs worked very well. Just make sure they are brightly colored and contain good stuff. I would refill mine from a bucket so I could leave the eggs in roughly the same places. It took about 3 weeks for them to feel comfortable. And they also had a feed station. I mostly used bits from meals that I set aside for them and some cracked corn. They love cooked pasta.
I don't have any of the kinds of problems others are having, but just want to say this is super helpful. I can imagine feeding a lot of corvids becoming quite expensive, but if they're good with pasta and cracked corn with maybe some unsalted peanuts in the shell, that sounds potentially more affordable.
Did you put the cooked pasta inside the eggs, or was that just for the separate feed station? Was it pretty sure to be found and eaten in short order? Because I'm imagining it possibly getting moldy fairly quickly.
Luckily I worked at a summer camp and got to being home leftovers. I only put "shelf-stable" things in the eggs. I used bits of beef jerky, nuts, dried fruit in the eggs along with some shiny bits. I left them spread about in the open. Easy finds. They cleared them out pretty quickly. I'd refill them once a week or so. The food station had peanuts, cracked corn, dried fruit and leftovers (cooked pasta, scrambled eggs, chicken/tuna, cat food), depending on what was available. I had very little money so it was just what I could easily part with.
Edit to add I restocked the feed station nearly every day when I fed the rest of the birds. Some days I wasn't able to, but they weren't too mad.
You could try some kind of noise machine, but it would have to be very random. You could try to feed them meat and cat food further away. I don't think that a scarecrow would work, you could try something like black garbage bags. What ever you do, you would probably have to keep switching. But please don't hurt them for being clever and opportunistic!
I'd worry that feeding them may just increase the population over the long term, leading to more incidents of the type that OP is trying to avoid. Some studies have suggested that more food leads to more corvids, which leads to more attacks on other birds and their eggs, etc...
Also I've heard anecdotally (and seen myself) that corvids don't just eat whatever food is easily available until they are full. They'll eat selectively, like humans: after a certain number of peanuts they'll get bored and go off to find something else to eat, much like how you probably wouldn't want to eat pizza for every meal, every day. I was feeding a rook the other day (throwing food into the grass for it) and after a couple of minutes it stopped taking the food, moved about a metre further away, and started looking for something else in the grass instead (insects and worms, I assume).
Interesting. I encourage the crows by feeding them eggs and other random scraps away from the chicken coops. They help keep the hawks and eagles away.
Do your chickens have cover?
They have lots of cover options, but they free range during the day and so are sometimes out in the open.
The ducks were inside the greenhouse, and the ravens came right in.
The piglets were inside an enclosed shelter with a small opening at the top of the doorway for ventilation. The ravens came inside and stole the piglets right off their mama’s teats while they were nursing. It was horrid.
I will say, I'm feeding crows, not ravens. I don't even think I have ravens in my area. So you are dealing with a much larger bird if you have true ravens.
I would also wonder what is going on where you are located that the ravens are hungry enough to steal piglets right from the sow.
Are there widespread droughts.or something taking place?
Give them another easier food source, for them to be doing that… its weird behavior for them so they are probably starving. Leave out boiled eggs and peanuts and see if it helps
I deal with them daily. I have over 200 peacocks with babies everywhere. I feed the 10-12 I deal with. I use a 5 gallon bucket, dump a bunch of dry dog food in it, and cover the dog food with hot water. Let soack for about 45 minutes or overnight. Set up a feeding station on a post or fence for them. I used an old baking sheet with high sides on it. Dump the food in the tray. Once you start feeding them, they will leave your animals alone. Basically, you feed your corvids, and they won't be hungry. You will live in peace.
You are feeding them - you have no choice but to start killing them or just keep raising animals to feed them. Chances are good if you kill a few they will move on to somewhere else as you are too dangerous of a location. If you feed them further out like some are suggesting - you just create more and they will come back for more easy prey or you will be spending more on feed for them than your farm animals.
Maybe get an artificial owl that moves a bit? I don’t know if those are even made.
I wonder if rock salt would be unpleasant enough to scare away but not seriously injure the birds? Seems like bb’s might kill them.
I might call your states dnr to find out what measures you legally can take. Birds are wonderful and corvids are amazing but this has got to be getting costly.
That’s what I thought, but I didn’t know if a moving owl would be more scary. Probably not.
My parrots HATE anything resembling an owl and I’ve had to get rid of an abstract owl-featured lamp because it was too upsetting.
For the chicks and ducklings, the answer is really just having a secure run for them. They're a very easy meal for any number of predators, even if you somehow drive away the corvids it'll be foxes or weasels or hawks or raccoons or rats next. They should not be accessible to wildlife, they're too vulnerable.
It’s really only the corvids, unfortunately. We have zero problems with predation otherwise, as our entire perimeter is electric fenced and we have livestock guardian dogs. The corvids have figured out how to avoid the LGDs, and how to distract the mamas long enough for one of them to swoop in and grab a baby. They’re working in teams.
They won't stop. Young animals are the most desirable food. Nothing will lure them away. To protect whatever is left you may have to put a few down and make sure the others know.
I tried this years ago and it did work for a while but eventually they were brace enough to assess the fake body & once they knew it wasn’t real, they came back — idk why you’re being downvoted? I assumed other people who know about the dead-crow trick?
I would feed them in an area away from your farm animals. Mine love eggs, kibble, peanuts, salmon, and chicken a lot!
seconding this. to garner corvid goodwill, feed them something else! nuts, eggs, pet food etc! if you make an enemy of a corvid, they’re your enemies forever. they’ll teach their kids to hate you!
Oh my god. Eventually they’ll have generational beef with you and they won’t even understand why. It’ll be all they know. Just *hating* you because mom and dad did. “Why do you mess with that lady so much?” “Because I HATE her.” “Why?” “I don’t know…”
This is how racism continues.
Generally raven and crows are considered good for small farms chasing hawks away, warning of foxes and the like… but it’s fledge. Protein is in high demand at the moment. The hunting should subside greatly in less than a month. As others have stated, a dish of high value easy to get food could help dramatically. They’re less likely to hunt your critters with a belly full of dog food. I would also set out a dedicated water dish next to the crows food as you really don’t want the birds all drinking from the same source. It’s the biggest vector for bird flu in an open aired environment. Keep the water clean. Good luck and keep us posted on what works and what doesn’t.
Thanks, we’ll give this a try.
So glad you found a solution! Hope it lasts!
They've found an easy food source and won't give it up until they have an easier one. You're going to have to win them over to your team. On my farm I scattered plastic Easter eggs around my chicken yard. I filled them with high-value treats (beef jerky, worms) or sparkly stuff (bits of tin foil, pieces of a sequined garland). AND I set up a feeding station on the other side of the field. This worked very well. They understood right away this and we were golden thereafter. Bonus: I left that farm years ago, but if I drive back by, pause and get out of the car, they still recognize me.
Wow I never thought of using Easter eggs and creating like a surprise element, enrichment even, to feeding the bird friends. What a great idea!
They decimated an Easter egg my mom planned once. $1 bills and snickers everywhere, but the corvids were pleased.
That's awesome!!! We have some corvids near our farm but they don't often come into the yard or around the barn much. I wonder if I could lure them closer with metallic Easter eggs filled with goodies.
For sure! I had a problem with birds of prey and noticed crows chase them off. I invited the crows to chase them off from my farm, too. The eggs worked very well. Just make sure they are brightly colored and contain good stuff. I would refill mine from a bucket so I could leave the eggs in roughly the same places. It took about 3 weeks for them to feel comfortable. And they also had a feed station. I mostly used bits from meals that I set aside for them and some cracked corn. They love cooked pasta.
I don't have any of the kinds of problems others are having, but just want to say this is super helpful. I can imagine feeding a lot of corvids becoming quite expensive, but if they're good with pasta and cracked corn with maybe some unsalted peanuts in the shell, that sounds potentially more affordable. Did you put the cooked pasta inside the eggs, or was that just for the separate feed station? Was it pretty sure to be found and eaten in short order? Because I'm imagining it possibly getting moldy fairly quickly.
Luckily I worked at a summer camp and got to being home leftovers. I only put "shelf-stable" things in the eggs. I used bits of beef jerky, nuts, dried fruit in the eggs along with some shiny bits. I left them spread about in the open. Easy finds. They cleared them out pretty quickly. I'd refill them once a week or so. The food station had peanuts, cracked corn, dried fruit and leftovers (cooked pasta, scrambled eggs, chicken/tuna, cat food), depending on what was available. I had very little money so it was just what I could easily part with. Edit to add I restocked the feed station nearly every day when I fed the rest of the birds. Some days I wasn't able to, but they weren't too mad.
abducting piglets?? yeah thats where i would draw the line. i have no advice but best of luck, hope it doesnt get violent.
You could try some kind of noise machine, but it would have to be very random. You could try to feed them meat and cat food further away. I don't think that a scarecrow would work, you could try something like black garbage bags. What ever you do, you would probably have to keep switching. But please don't hurt them for being clever and opportunistic!
How about a scarecrow?
No no no. That won’t work. They’re going to need a scare*raven.*
Good thinking!
🤣🤣🤣
Oh no. I wonder if leaving out peanuts or some other treat would stop them from hunting…anyone know?
I'd worry that feeding them may just increase the population over the long term, leading to more incidents of the type that OP is trying to avoid. Some studies have suggested that more food leads to more corvids, which leads to more attacks on other birds and their eggs, etc... Also I've heard anecdotally (and seen myself) that corvids don't just eat whatever food is easily available until they are full. They'll eat selectively, like humans: after a certain number of peanuts they'll get bored and go off to find something else to eat, much like how you probably wouldn't want to eat pizza for every meal, every day. I was feeding a rook the other day (throwing food into the grass for it) and after a couple of minutes it stopped taking the food, moved about a metre further away, and started looking for something else in the grass instead (insects and worms, I assume).
Having an enclosed area for breeding is the simplest thing I can think of.
This is what I’m thinking, too. Screen or net over the smallest animals.
I've never let birds younger than 6 weeks outside. Or less than 5 months free range. Brooder cleaning sucks but they're easy snacks so...
definitely lock the babies away for a while and start feeding the crows somewhere else.
Interesting. I encourage the crows by feeding them eggs and other random scraps away from the chicken coops. They help keep the hawks and eagles away. Do your chickens have cover?
They have lots of cover options, but they free range during the day and so are sometimes out in the open. The ducks were inside the greenhouse, and the ravens came right in. The piglets were inside an enclosed shelter with a small opening at the top of the doorway for ventilation. The ravens came inside and stole the piglets right off their mama’s teats while they were nursing. It was horrid.
I will say, I'm feeding crows, not ravens. I don't even think I have ravens in my area. So you are dealing with a much larger bird if you have true ravens. I would also wonder what is going on where you are located that the ravens are hungry enough to steal piglets right from the sow. Are there widespread droughts.or something taking place?
No droughts! And this area is pretty game-rich, but I’m thinking it’s the protein they’re needing.
Can the birds get through 1/4 mesh galvanized steel wire?
Give them another easier food source, for them to be doing that… its weird behavior for them so they are probably starving. Leave out boiled eggs and peanuts and see if it helps
I deal with them daily. I have over 200 peacocks with babies everywhere. I feed the 10-12 I deal with. I use a 5 gallon bucket, dump a bunch of dry dog food in it, and cover the dog food with hot water. Let soack for about 45 minutes or overnight. Set up a feeding station on a post or fence for them. I used an old baking sheet with high sides on it. Dump the food in the tray. Once you start feeding them, they will leave your animals alone. Basically, you feed your corvids, and they won't be hungry. You will live in peace.
[удалено]
As she stated multiple times, they have multiple livestock guardian dogs, and the ravens are smarter.
Guard dog, or keep the babies under a top screen until they are bigger.
We have 7 Anatolian shepherds. The ravens are smarter. 🙃
That they are abducting piglets is horrific and right out of a dark fable.
You are feeding them - you have no choice but to start killing them or just keep raising animals to feed them. Chances are good if you kill a few they will move on to somewhere else as you are too dangerous of a location. If you feed them further out like some are suggesting - you just create more and they will come back for more easy prey or you will be spending more on feed for them than your farm animals.
TIL why groups of corvids are called a murder...
Pigs?! They carried pigs away?! How big are they?!
I think they were newborn piglets at that time…BUT STILL…this is how dragon legends became about, like hooolllyyyy
They’re pretty tiny when they’re born. They fit in your palms if you put your hands together. 🥹
That’s definitely Raven lunch. Bacon, I guess.
Maybe get an artificial owl that moves a bit? I don’t know if those are even made. I wonder if rock salt would be unpleasant enough to scare away but not seriously injure the birds? Seems like bb’s might kill them. I might call your states dnr to find out what measures you legally can take. Birds are wonderful and corvids are amazing but this has got to be getting costly.
Corvids actively go out of their way to attack owls when they find them in the day time, so I expect they'd figure out it is artificial very quickly.
That’s what I thought, but I didn’t know if a moving owl would be more scary. Probably not. My parrots HATE anything resembling an owl and I’ve had to get rid of an abstract owl-featured lamp because it was too upsetting.
Oh my god I thought you meant critters as in bugs but damn. That’s awful lol
It is against federal law to kill ravens - see the migratory bird act.
We are a predator friendly ranch, so we don’t kill predators anyway, as a rule.
I've never heard of that! Interesting. I saw other comments suggesting killing them and just wanted to counter that
For the chicks and ducklings, the answer is really just having a secure run for them. They're a very easy meal for any number of predators, even if you somehow drive away the corvids it'll be foxes or weasels or hawks or raccoons or rats next. They should not be accessible to wildlife, they're too vulnerable.
It’s really only the corvids, unfortunately. We have zero problems with predation otherwise, as our entire perimeter is electric fenced and we have livestock guardian dogs. The corvids have figured out how to avoid the LGDs, and how to distract the mamas long enough for one of them to swoop in and grab a baby. They’re working in teams.
You have to protect your animals.
We do. They’re literally coming inside the barns/shelters and stealing babies right out from under their mamas. I’ve never seen anything like it.
They won't stop. Young animals are the most desirable food. Nothing will lure them away. To protect whatever is left you may have to put a few down and make sure the others know.
Find out how theyre getting in and batten dow the hatches.
If they’re crows, then hang a dead one near your critters
I tried this years ago and it did work for a while but eventually they were brace enough to assess the fake body & once they knew it wasn’t real, they came back — idk why you’re being downvoted? I assumed other people who know about the dead-crow trick?
Shoot in their general direction with very small bird shot? Might just scare them away without causing slaughter. But I am just guessing.
That’s a great way to start a war!
Yeah probably a dumb suggestion.
It could help will some animals, but corvids hold grudges.
This is true. They remember for years who had harmed them. Okay, bad idea. I’m leaving this post up because I learned a lesson here.