Finding a crows nest.

Anonymous Poster · Mar 30, 2003

Tractor Widow..your 1st post I see....welcome to TBN..did you register to tell me about the cons of a crow???? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ( You can get a parrot "diaper" for them) Well like I said earlier IF I ever get one he or she will be kept outside....The crow can't poo poo anymore than my 50 chickens/guineas/ducks/ that are outside..If the crow becomes a problem,(as I stated earlier there is no season limit on them in WVa),I could blast him with my 12 gauge and have him stuffed by my local taxidermist and set him on the mantle above my fireplace. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

beenthere · Mar 30, 2003

( blast him with my 12 gauge and have him stuffed by my local taxidermist )

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gifNow that would be a taxidermists worst nightmare /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

AndyR · Mar 31, 2003

Great post! That really brings back memories. We used to raise crows as pets when I was a kid and they were every bit as capable as the one you describe. ours would stay in a large cage in the kitchen until they could fly, then it was outside for them. No gas cap or set of keys was safe and if you needed to work on anything you kept a closed box close at hand (and kept the shop doors closed at ALL times). It was always amusing to watch visitors react (the biggest wimps turned out to be linebacker types). The crow would also sit on the hood of the car and take off when you reached about 30 - just spreading its wings to float away. Some folks would creep down the road and the crow would get upset (HEY - What's the problem?). Our crows would usually be with us for a season and then take off in the fall, though we had one winter over. I have to agree with the observation of others however - it is not in the best interests of the crow to raise them as pets (I typed pests - and had to think about that).

RichZ · Mar 31, 2003

Tractorwidow, great post!!

As I said, I rehabilatated many crows, and if they couldn't fly, I kept them in a special room that I turned into an aviary. But, under supervision, I let them play in the rest of my house, and you gave a pretty good desciption of what it was like.

Luckily, I always had a few crows at the same time, so they were never alone, but as you said, crows are very social animals, and can't stand to be alone. Even when there's a group of them, they like to investigate what's going on in the rest of the house, so they usually want the run of the house, and let you know it, very loudly!!!

I also agree that flightless crows should not be destroyed. I never got my own rehabilatator's license, because I won't euthanize unreleasable animals if they could do well in captivity. I always work as an "assistant" to a veterinarian, to get around the license problem. If you do have a license, you're required to euthanize animals that can't be released, and they do check you out to make sure you're doing that.

Anonymous Poster · Mar 31, 2003

That would depend how far away I was from him when I blasted him and if I was using number#6 or number #2 shot.
I might even get hungry and eat crow /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

TresCrows · Mar 31, 2003

I once had a flightless buzzard. He was sitting in the top of a tree as I drifted under it in my piroque so I shot him with my slingshot. The stone whacked him in the head and he fell into the water and flopped around so I felt bad and rescued him. I took him home and added him to my collection of critters which at the time was considerable. I kept him tied to a post in the "critter area" and fed him hamburger and stuff. When I went for a walk in the woods with the dogs or away in the boat he would accompany me--he apparently had forgotten how to fly--I don't know if his amnesia ever dissipated. Whilst away my mom would feed him and the other critters. Somehow /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif he got loose and was last seen walking down the road by some other kids from those parts and so that was the last of Buddy the Buzzard. For some odd reason similar things happened to my other less agreeable critters like Andy the Armadillo and Stinky the Skunk and Polly Possum /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. You don't think my moma let them go do ya? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
J

Egon · Mar 31, 2003

Sure hope you saved all the fertilizer for your mothers garden when the oll buzzard hit.

Egon

Anonymous Poster · Mar 31, 2003

Back in 1978 an old man I knew who was a known as a local outdoorsman(this ole boy squirrel hunted barefoot)anyway old Raymond was broke down along the road and I stopped an offered him a ride,I took him home and pulled up to his house and he had a Red Fox he had caught as a pup tied up to his dog house.He said he had named it Gerry Ford.On another note he was running his trap lines in zero degree weather and he fell through the ice,he climbed back out,took his clothes off,wrung the water out of his clothes and put his clothes back on and finished checking his traps, then he went home.One tough old guy,but a nice man.I will remember him the rest of my life.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 11, 2003

Right after my post, crows made a nest in the tree outside my bedroom. How about that for coincidence? I can't believe I'd be crazy enough to raise another crow, but I guess I am. The babies will probably fall out of the nest and be killed-that seems to happen a lot to the other birdies in that particular tree-but I'll be on the lookout for any that get hurt. Hearing that RichZ handled a bunch of them inside his house was amazing. He must have had eyes in the back of his head to keep up with all of their mischief at the same time. Had to be worse than watching a passle of kindergardeners in an antiques store.

Naw, I'm only a partial newbie. My husband Leo reads just about all your posts out loud to me anyway (I'm not calling myself tractorwidow for nothing), so I figured I might as well go ahead and register Besides, if he and I start talking about posts more, he won't have as much time to go on ebay looking for more tractors and parts /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Anonymous Poster · Apr 11, 2003

I grew up in a rural area with fairly large tract of woods behind the house. In 1974, a neighbor and I climbed up a tree and emptied a crow's nest of all the newly hatched crows.

Feeding them was a trick. At first we used a medicine dropper with milk and whatever else they could eat. Soon they were on table scraps and cat food. All five survived into adulthood.

We made large wire cages the birds roosted in. They kept the cats and the rabbits company in the small barn. During the day, the barn doors were opened and all the critters (except rabbits) ran free. The crows would swoop down out of the trees and land right on the handle bars of your bicycle while you were riding. They would also land on your head or shoulders. Crow poop on your back is never fun.

Each of the five had distinct personalities. They also had their favorite people. They were alot of fun. I was twelve when we got them. Once I turned 16, cars replaced bikes real fast. Then my bother, sister and I were all out of the house.

One was lost to an owl. One was hit by a car. One flew off and joined a local flock (he came back for visits for about 4 months). The two remaining crows lasted for a long time. The last one died in 2001.