crows are stealing my eggs...

[littledel]

I have turkeys and guineas laying in self made nest. The guineas are free range and the turkey always stay in the back field of my little mini-farm, and the crows are constantly stealing eggs. They seem to find them no matter where my birds hide their nest, then they peck a hole in the egg and carry it off. I have lost over a dozen guinea eggs and 6-10 turkey eggs that I know of. I have not been able to catch the crows and they always seem to see me before I see them, so I have not been able to shoot any either. Any help would be appreciated, please.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Depending on how many eggs you are losing I would not shoot them, they keep the hawks away. You may want to provide some covered nest boxes for them and that should cure most of the problem.

 

[littledel]

Even with hawks around, I don't like to loose 10+ turkey eggs and over a dozen guinea eggs to those nasty stealing crows. they are literally following my birds around and waiting on them to lay an egg so they can steal it. I guess it may be time for the old tent blind to come out and get really serious about this. Also thinking of some kind of scarecrow.

 

[plumberroy]

Quote:
crows are under Migratory bird laws so check your laws (if you get caught out of season you get a ticket from the state plus one from Uncle Sam
Roy

 

[littledel]

Quote:
crows are under Migratory bird laws so check your laws (if you get caught out of season you get a ticket from the state plus one from Uncle Sam
Roy

I just checked and crows do have a season, but if they are causing damage to your property you can kill them at anytime and do not need a permit or anything.

 

[littledel]

My dad came by and put out a "scarecrow" to ward off the crows. It is sitting in a chair near where the guineas have been laying (and losing) their eggs to crows. There was one egg in there yesterday evening. Now if the crows get used to the dummy, I think I will dress up like it and take its place with a shotgun. LOL

 

[Renee']

I recently have had them stealing my chicken eggs too. They are so darn bold. They go right into the coop and steal them out of the nest box. I am thinking about making a scarecrow too.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
I have a book somewhere about feeding wildbirds out of your hand. It's been a long time since I read it, but if I recall somewhat correctly you position a "dummy" in a chair with it's "hand" held. You place some type of bird treat in the dummy's palm for several days (weeks?). Finally one day you dress up as the dummy and take the dummy's place in the chair. What you're saying is much similar.

Best wishes on solving your crow problem...ever how you do it,
Ed

 

[plumberroy]

Quote:
A radio combined with a scarecrow works much better

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I suggest that you work on teaching your turkeys where to lay. If you don't have a safe nesting area already, you should make one. It can be as simple as a couple of turkey sized nestboxes in a fenced off part of your yard. Confine the turkeys in that area until they lay each day. After you collect the eggs, let them out. Eventually they will go into the layer pen on thier own. As for the gineas, not sure if they are as easy to train, but if they lay most of thier eggs in the morning, you can just confine them to a layer pen in the AM.