Seeking some advice from my fellow #Poultry people.
There are two ravens that have recently become very bold and begun flying down into our chicken's (fenced) yard to steal some of the scraps we throw for them. Until recently, these same ravens have been pretty known around the property: sometimes they raid our compost, or play with my dog's toys, so I'm not really averse to having them around. However, I'm a little worried about disease vectors or them trying to steal one of my smaller chickens (or young pullets when we have them).
So, if you look online, everyone says basically that you MUST fence the roof of the yard, keep them out at all costs, etc. But I feel a little hesitant to do something so drastic. First, small songbirds do hang out with our chickens sometimes and eat their food, and while those are also potential disease vectors, they eat flies and other pests that might otherwise plague our chickens and gardens, and I'm happy to have them around unless a problem should arise (so far so good, we have pretty hardy poultry and plan to keep it that way). Second, it would just be costly to do something like that and I'm kind of hoping to avoid adding that to our project list right now. Finally, our chickens often are let out to pasture when I don't have new seeds in the ground, and so even if their yard is fully secured I'm interested in solutions/ideas that would fit with pastured birds as well.
TLDR; how concerned should I be about ravens getting braver around my flock of chickens? What solutions could I employ that would work for my chickens in their yard and when they pasture?
Getting a meaner rooster: mine protects his girls by getting them inside, as far as I can tell. He used to crow loudly at the ravens, but when both ravens came today together he didn't make a sound and all the birds just went inside. I'm concerned about the impact of adding another rooster to this flock, but it might be worth a try.
Trying to train my dog to chase the ravens away (he does this when they're low enough to the ground, but not consistently, and doesn't have the same scent-basis for seeking them out the way he does with coyotes or other predators who approach our property).
Hanging shiny things from string stretched over their yard to disrupt the raven's flight path. I'm not sure if this works for ravens like it does hawks or other raptors, because they're just... very intelligent, and also it wouldn't work when the birds are pastured.
Get a goose? We don't really have the infrastructure for waterfowl at the moment. I do want geese eventually, but am not sure I'm ready to try to get a little gosling adopted in with my hens and it isn't a quick solution.
@siin hey you two, jacqueline @photovotary recently posted about her dear chicken friend, so I thought I’d connect you two, if you weren’t already connected. cheers!
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