Crows and growing garden corn

   / Crows and growing garden corn #1  

meadowlarkponds

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Feb 9, 2006
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East Texas
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Kubota L2350, MF 383, Case 450 dozer, Kubota M4050 back hoe
I'm curious..what are your techniques for keeping the crows out of your garden corn, especially as it is just sprouting? I love the taste of fresh home grown corn, but have lost the battle to crows more times than I have won it. This year, I'm able to have a 24/7 presence on the place so can perhaps be more effective.

What are some of your succesful techniques?
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #2  
I'd always heard that hanging a dead crow on the fence near the corn was the best way to keep the crows out. I was a bit skeptical; however . . . . a few years ago the crows descended on my place and got every single kernel of corn that I had planted. I had tried running them off several times by just shooting a 20 gauge shotgun in the air, but they always came back. So I replanted my corn, and that time they only got about half of it before I did shoot and kill one and hang him on the fence. I left him there for a couple of weeks and was never bothered by crows after haning him there.

So . . ., does hanging a dead crow on the fence work? Or was it just the timing and the crows went elsewhere? I don't know; your guess is as good as mine.:)
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #3  
Hey Bird!

I heard the same thing from a farmer out here. Tried it last year when crows were literally tearing up my place, and it worked!
Felt kind of silly tying a dead crow to a post in the yard, but it really freaked them out. I've been told that crows are very smart, and that it affects them. Don't know abou that but I can tell you that they kept circling the dead one, trying to get him to maybe follow, for about 10 minutes, then left and never came back.

anthony
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #4  
When we hunt crow, the first thing we do after shooting 3-4 crows, is tie a string around their necks and threw the string of crows up in a tree. It is very successful at attracting more crows.
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #5  
I think I'll try the dead crow on a stick. They have been picking the trashbags to pieces before the garbage truck arrives and making a mess. I'll shoot one and skin him out,salt his worthless hide and mount him on a stick. Every trash pickup day he will be there to remind his friends to stay clear.

We've used dead crows for crow hunting before as was stated earlier. Its very effective. The best we ever did was 70 in about 45 minutes. You couldn't load your gun fast enough to shot the blasted critters. There is a large crow roost nearby with several thousand crows in it nightly.

meadowlarks, you may want to try one or two owl decoys. It may keep them riled up enough to leave your corn alone.
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #6  
By far, the largest flock of birds of any kind that I've ever seen was the crows around Marlow, OK, in the early '50s. I hadn't heard of using a dead crow for bait for more of them, but heard that a crippled or wounded crow staked out somewhere would sure draw them in. And while I never succeeded in killing very many myself, I did shoot one once that only wounded it, and its cries brought the flock back toward me in such numbers that it scared this teenager.:D And I saw dozens of dead crows under trees near large culverts or bridges along the roads where hunters could hide in there and shoot them as they arrived.

I'll shoot one and skin him out,salt his worthless hide and mount him on a stick.

I'm not sure they'd recognize one that had been skinned.:D I think I was 11 or 12 years old when I'd heard conflicting stories as to whether crows were fit it eat. So I shot one and dressed it out intending to cook it and find out for myself whether they were good to eat. But when I showed up at the door, Mother wouldn't let me in the house with it. So I've eaten crow a few times in my life, but never that kind of crow.:D
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #7  
I have a bunch of crow decoy's from back in the day when I hunted them. I don't use them anymore. I wonder if you layed they on the ground if the crows would think they were dead crows. I would be happy to give you a couple if you thought they would work.
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #8  
I need to find a way to get rid of them too. They will pick the river bottom clean of corn and since we are building our house on the ridge above the bottom this year I will not have time to try and scare them or shoot them.

Will be able to do this next year though:D .

I am going to try the owl on a pole.

Also what do you think about a fake crow to use instead of a dead one. I tied a fake crow in a tree at my BIL house a couple of years ago when he was being over run with crows and shooting them every morning. He look out of his kitchen window and saw this crow (fake one) in a tree, snuck out the back door and had the crosshairs on him ready to shoot when he noticed it would not move. He thought it had died standing up in the tree:eek: . So it fooled him. But now that I think about it the crows may be smarter!
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #9  
a radio playing on a talk radio channel works for the crows, but it stunts the corn :(
 
   / Crows and growing garden corn #10  
Bird said:
I'd always heard that hanging a dead crow on the fence near the corn was the best way to keep the crows out. I was a bit skeptical; however . . . . a few years ago the crows descended on my place and got every single kernel of corn that I had planted. I had tried running them off several times by just shooting a 20 gauge shotgun in the air, but they always came back. So I replanted my corn, and that time they only got about half of it before I did shoot and kill one and hang him on the fence. I left him there for a couple of weeks and was never bothered by crows after haning him there.

So . . ., does hanging a dead crow on the fence work? Or was it just the timing and the crows went elsewhere? I don't know; your guess is as good as mine.:)

Ditto! My grandfather used to do the same thing. Ole Bird knows his Crows!
 
 
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