Ravens friend or foe

I know that word will stir a lot of you into a rage.

But this year I decided to try something.

Every morning I would take my dirty eggs and put them
on the snow bank for the ravens. My theory was if they
think this is home they will defend it. And so they did.
I witnessed them sending off eaggles several times beating
a hawk up and even chased a fox off that was about 10 ft from
the chicken coop. I know only give them eggs when I find
a hidden nest. Also if they were well fed on eggs maybe
they would not go after other smaller bird eggs as their
bellys were already full. So I have guard llama's, guard turkey tom,
and guard ravens.

So, are you training the ravens...or are they training you?   

I like the thinking behind this. Let us know how it works out as you hatch chicks and other things take place. Nice way to try to deal with a predator.

I've done this for years with our crows. They nest just a short ways off in the trees. No hawk, eagle or raven comes into our air space without being mobbed.

Fowler do they also keep song birds away?
That is one thing I worry about as I like all
the sounds of the little birds.

As for chicks mine are kept inside untill
sold and if I am keeping any they stay in
until several months old.

Awesome. The ravens bring their babies here to grow. The fun and games are left to the natural prey. My chicks run free range with all the rest and to date not a loss since last spring's fox. A fox that was driven out of range by a newly purchased neighbor with ethical evils in mind, mind you. My loss really, but the coyotes..er..um, pooped out the culprit onto my daily path in a gesture of respect, which by the way we all owe to each other dont we?

At the end of the season the falcons do a sweep through the area for 3 days of pandemonium that propels the songbirds south, i suppose, i dont really know where they go but they all go after 3 days of wild flight for life. The rest of the year is mostly cat-like calm or pandemonium as the cats wish it to be lol. They all know the chickens and stuff are off limits. We have owls ravens hawks eagles falcons coyotes fox martin weasel wolf cougar and no trouble really.

I dont get it either, ok im lying, still...?????

I agree with this, having spent over twenty years in BC, the crow capital of the world, I was not kindly disposed to them. However once I came to Alberta and had chickens I was lucky enough to have several pairs of crows nesting close to my coop where I free ranged my birds. I can't speak to their effectiveness on foxes and coyotes, but every flying predator was promptly chased away. It was great.

No effect on the songbirds.  I have loads coming to bird feeders.  They clear out when a crow comes in to see what he can find but they come right back when he leaves.

I should add, I toss the eggs (great way to get rid of old, very dirty or crackes ones) in a spot where they are easily spotted and I do it in the morning to be sure they have them cleaned up by nightfall. I'm sure the coons and foxes come around anyway but I don't want to reward them for it.

Best thing I did (unintentionally) is to have the pig field near enough to the chicken houses that i can toss ugly eggs (beyond dirty, old, cracked) out the door and into the pig pasture. Crows hope to get some but the pigs are like piranahs....