Crows attacking chooks

[Jodi]

Watching the girls from my lounge window, as you do, and saw one of the ladies enjoying a dust bath (well, more like mud) but having a great time nonetheless!

A rotten crow spotted her and ran over, on the other side of the fence, and she jumped out of her hole and ran to the other side of the run. With that, the crow swooped into the run after her. She took off to the end that has the coup and the crow went back up to the top of the run. Instead of going in, the silly girl went around the back of the coup and the crow swooped down after her again!

I took off out the back, the crow took off and all of the girls ran out of the coup to me as did the poor ruffled girl from behind the coup.

I don't know if the crow made contact - she seems OK, a bit ruffled.

I know crows will have a go at smaller or injured animals but is it usual for a crow to chase something bigger than themselves?????

This crow obviously thought she was injured, being sprawled out waving her wing around like a mad woman - but he tried to catch her when it was obvious she was OK.

(We have Aussie Magpies and Crimson Rosellas that constantly cause the girls grief, but are soon disposed of by the braver of the crew!)

Has anyone seen this happen......is this normal?

ta
Jodi

[Richard]

Hi Jodi,

We get crows in the back garden, but none have gone for the chickens.
Most birds seem to mix in quite well and I've seen them all from Robins to Pheasants strolling around in harmony.
The magpies occasionally swoop at the food which scares the chickens away.

It is so that most feathered friends enjoy blood though.

Maybe your crows down there had just opened a few 4XXXX's !!

Richard

[Jodi]

I'd get aggressive too if I had to drink 4xxxx ,strictly VB in our house!

I hope this is a one off, our crows will go for newborn lambs and other animals in distress but it surprises me that she ran from it, they are always chasing other birds out of the run and the other day one of the girls literally flew of her front porch and landed on a magpies back, while two others chased off its mate. They're getting lots of practice with the maggies, were in the middle of a turf war and we can have anything up to 30 sqabbling over our place.

Fingers crossed the crows will mind their manners in future.

cheers
Jodi