I have a serious problem to overcome

peter1 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:26 pm **Posts:** 6

Hello everybody, new user here.

I joined the forum looking for an answer to a specific problem I have with my chooks.

I am not getting any eggs. This is not because my chooks are not laying. This is because I have a Crow stealing all the eggs. This has been going on for 12 months and despite all my efforts I have been unable to stop it.

I am buying supermarket eggs because I'm not getting any eggs, despite having 10 hens.

Originally I left the door of the chook house open so the chooks could go in and use the nesting boxes to lay. After a while a local Crow found that he could walk in the door and steal my eggs. It just picks them up in its beak and flies off with them.

So I cut a small hole at the bottom of the chook house, hung plastic strips in it, spent a few days training the chooks to use it and closed the door.

This worked for a month or so until the Crow found the hole. No eggs again.

Since then I've tried all sorts of things. I've got a plastic hawk hanging above the chook shed, that works for a few months but doesn't any more. Now I've got a complete assault course for the chooks to navigate to get into the chook shed, and now the Crow has worked out how to navigate that.

I'm at my wits end trying to work out how to stop this Crow, or in fact I suspect a whole bunch of them, from taking all my eggs.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Peter

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

You could try the tabasco sauce trick. Get a few eggs, suck about 5 to 10 ml of yolk out with a syringe, then replace with the same volume of the hottest chilli sauce you can find. Unless you have mexican crows, this puts them off!

peter1 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:26 pm **Posts:** 6

I've had a number of people suggest injecting all sorts of things into eggs. I bought a syringe and tried about 3 or 4 different options for injecting stuff into the eggs, but sadly none of it worked. One suspicion I have is that they break the egg to eat it and the stuff that you've injected in just dribbles out.

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

Well I've had the tabasco sauce trick work for me.

Alternately, you need to trap the crow, kill it and hang it up outside the pen to deter other crows.

greenaus · **Posted:** Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:20 am

^^^^ Sounds like the most successful option ^^^^

Bourke · **Posted:** Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:23 am

Hot chilli sauce works well gives the crows the "ring of fire"

Bourke

peter1 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:26 pm **Posts:** 6

I've tried trapping it, but I'm open to any other suggestions as to how to trap it. I searched the net for an idea and came up with an idea for a trap. It had an open top and you put food in the bottom and when the crow dropped in to get it it and couldn't get out.

I built one with chicken wire and put an egg in the bottom, but could never get the crow to go in. Initially it just hung down and took the egg or broke it to suck the middle out, so I made it higher. Then it gave up and never went in.

But if anyone has any good ideas for how to trap them I'd love to hear them. As I say, I've tried every single idea I've been able to come up with so far.

Thanks for the input

peter1 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:26 pm **Posts:** 6

I even tried to trap them when they went into the chook house, I had a bit of wood with a stick, when they went in the bit of wood was supposed to drop down when they dislodged the stick and close the hole. All I ever trapped was chooks.

RAREBREED · **Joined:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:17 pm **Posts:** 63

I once had magpies doing the same after many attempts to stop them.
I found the best way was catch them in the act and lock them in the pen, once they wear them selves out a little go in and finish them off.

NO MORE MAGPIES........

peter1 · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:26 pm **Posts:** 6

I have also had the kids outside under a green blanket waiting for the crows to go in just for that reason. Under a blanket because I'm told Crows are very intelligent and can spot any risks, so I figured that the kids couldn't just sit there and watch or the Crows wouldn't come. But even under a blanket watching we never saw them come.

We've almost never caught them in the act. But we have occasionally. Just last week my wife drove in the drive to see a Crow coming out of the assault course with an egg in it's beak.

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