I have a large number of black crows living on my farm. I’ve always hated them, but as of today, it’s now personal and I need advice on how to get rid of them.
Does anyone have a suggestion?
no suggestions… but i gotta know how it’s personal 
Somedays I have a vendetta against the buggers too… sigh
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These things are enormous and there are 8 of them. They sit on my fencing, constantly screaming out and spooking one of my horses right out of his skin. They’re so smart that I think I have to shoot them - but I don’t know what kind of gun to use. I’m seriously going crazy! I’m like Bill Murray in Caddyshack trying to kill the gopher.
I hate to think of killing something just because they are “aggravating” you. Maybe you could think of it more as an opportunity to use to desensitize your horse to loud noises and incorporate some other stuff like tarps, etc. You can’t just expect life to be quiet and calm, it’s better to just let them live in the real world and learn to cope. JMHO!
PennyG
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they eat dead things and garbage; are you SURE you want to chase them off/kill them? don’t want too many dead things lying around, you might get infested with buzzards instead. Nature’s clean up crews.
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Crows are highly intelligent birds and live in family groups. Scientists have identified over 200 separate “words” that they use in talking to each other. They also clean up carrion and roadkill.
If your horse is afraid of birds, trying to get rid of the crows isn’t going to do much. :no:
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[QUOTE=wendy;4889491]
they eat dead things and garbage; are you SURE you want to chase them off/kill them? [/QUOTE]
Yup. My husband left the garbage bag sitting on the steps… 5 feet from the door, walked into the kitchen to get a twisty, and came back less than a minute later to find garbage all over the driveway. They also ripped apart a grapevine horse I have for a lawn ornament for nesting material. I hate 'em. HATE 'em I tell you!
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I love the crows! There’s a small pack that hangs out at the barn. I’ve seen them catch a mouse or snake on more than one occasion!! They are awfully quiet for crows, and never sneak up on the horses, though. That would make me a little aggravated.
But spookwise there’s also endless numbers of rustling squirrels, jumping rabbits, sneaking foxes and the awful evil cows down the road. 
My personal pet peeve is with the mainly gophers and their horrible holes. If it were my property I’d buy a couple of dachshunds and run on the horse trails daily!
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you also might wanna check to make sure it’s not illegal to kill a crow…here it is unlawful to have one for a pet unless it is unable to return to the wild due to injury, etc…
that being said, i too, think it is unnecessary to kill crows…just run a hot wire on the top fencerail, and they will not have it available as a roosting spot…i bet the horse would get used to the noise, anyway…
you want the neighbors to shoot horses because they are too noisy, or too smelly, or their kids are afraid of them?..kinda the same thing…
whatever happened to “live and let live”?
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Crows are useful
Despite the fact that many cultures in the world have a special place in their myths for crows(so have coolness factor despite the goth buzz of the movie), they are useful: they eat bugs (remember those freebie ones that come with your hay), and are an efficient alarm system.
It’s really horrible you would try and kill them.
I recommend that if you don’t want them tearing into your trash, that you feed them: they won’t eat trash if there’s better eats. The murder of crows at my house keep the vultures away–and vultures smell bad for a good twenty feet, although they too are useful and impressive fliers–and calm down my horses when they wait for feeding time (they see me coming from the road and make a sound that keeps the horses from their I’m hungry horse play that has scarred up my show horse).
Crows can mimic and I have bootlessly tried to get mine to say hello for their food. No luck yet. I have noticed they do have a special sound for me that sounds like, if you watch enough science fiction movies, oddly similar to she’s here. I did work at a place once where the crows there made a sound that endlessly sounded like uh-oh. It was funny for awhile, but it also became oddly true.
Remember, some societies revere crows as magical beings, so you may want to rethink your hate tactics.
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LOL I have more than once zoned out on a conference call when I’m working from home. I’ll open my office window and listen to the crows talking. They are much more engaging than the average conference call
let me guess, OP, they spooked your horse and you got dumped. I’m itching to know how one has a personal vendetta…against a crow?
[QUOTE=SmartAlex;4889513]
Yup. My husband left the garbage bag sitting on the steps… 5 feet from the door, walked into the kitchen to get a twisty, and came back less than a minute later to find garbage all over the driveway. They also ripped apart a grapevine horse I have for a lawn ornament for nesting material. I hate 'em. HATE 'em I tell you![/QUOTE]
Then suggest to them that they come live with us. We have a fairly large band who lives here and cleans up feed dropped by the goats. A few more won’t hurt.
I like them and they are welcome here.
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[QUOTE=xsuzi;4889578]
Crows can mimic and I have bootlessly tried to get mine to say hello for their food. No luck yet. I have noticed they do have a special sound for me that sounds like, if you watch enough science fiction movies, oddly similar to she’s here. [/QUOTE]
bootlessly? Wassat??
I love crows! They are insanely smart and intelligent…odd since another poster mentioned it, but I had one here for a while that went “Uh oh” as well.
Surely all the crow lovers here have seen that video of the crow in ________… (I wanna say somewhere in South America?) where they would drop the nuts in the road, let cars run over them, and then be seen waiting for the pedestrian cross signal? Then they’d hop out (OMG I <3 that crow skip, adorable!) and grab their nut meat, safe from cars, and then hop back to the sidewalk to eat. Since even humans seem to have trouble understanding what “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” (:rolleyes:) mean, it’s amazing that such “lesser animals” can.
Don’t kill them. One, I think it’s illegal in most places. And two, your gosh darned horse shouldn’t be afraid of birds. That’s gonna make life very difficult.
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I hate crows. They fly into the barn and pick baby swallows right from their nests 
On the flip side, this sounds strange, but I was watching a program about crows on Nat Geo and they said (in Laymans terms of course…) that crows have human recognition skills and will remember faces that were unpleasant to them and tell their other crow friends about that person in their little “crow language.” And try to stay away from them.
Anyway, using that theory, I think you should recklessly scare them away as obnoxiously as possible and make paper masks with your picture on them and carry those around too
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Okay you guys- I won’t kill the darn crows! Gee-wiz!
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I’m fairly certain they cannot be killed without permit, as they are included in the federal “song bird protection” laws–no birds may be killed unless they are game birds (and then you need a license).
I know you need a permit to kill starlings on agricultural land.
Really? You want to kill them because they are “annoying” to you and spook your horse? If that were they only criteria to kill things, most 13 year old kids would be dead! As would the guy down the road who shoots his gun at odd hours and our neighbor’s dog, heck the cows across from my horse would have been dead a year ago–darn things spook him constantly.
Pull up your big girl panties and deal.
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Crows (like most birds) are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. If you aim to kill them (sorry, couldn’t resist) you will need a predation permit from your state wildlife agency or the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I’d recommend instead consulting with your county extension agent, there are ways to make their hangouts less appealing. Personally, I’d start with crow deterring cats and dogs.
I did have a neighbor some years back in our urban neighborhood who acquired the predation permit, his son and my son were hired to thin the flock, they used pellet guns. In our neighborhood a shotgun would be a hazard to neighbors.
[QUOTE=LKF;4889624]
Okay you guys- I won’t kill the darn crows! Gee-wiz![/QUOTE]
Good for you, LKF!
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[QUOTE=LKF;4889624]
Okay you guys- I won’t kill the darn crows! Gee-wiz![/QUOTE]
Yay! I love crows and ravens. We have a small flock that roosts in the neighbor’s trees at night. I have no idea where they go during the day. It’s so cool to sit outside at dusk and listen to them talk and catch up on their day.
They sure don’t bother my horses but the chickens don’t care for them!
