Stringing up crows?

[MagiKelly]

The farmer where I have my permission likes me to leave the shot crows so he can string them up from the fence posts. He seems sure this acts as a deterrent. I'm not convinced but not going to argue as I keep the pigeons and want to stay on his good side.

 

Is this a common thing and is there any truth in it?

 

I should say the fence line is out of the way and does not get any passing walkers so the crows hanging there will not offend anyone.

[Ant8681]

On one of my perms the old girl does the same with jackdaws, she us sure it works

[Thunderbird]

It's a bit like a Gamekeeper's Gibbet, where a keeper would hang dead vermin to show the landowner he was doing his job.

 

Belly-up pigeons deter other ones don't they, so dead crows hanging on a fence might also work?

[steve_b_wales]

Stringing them up does not deter other Crows from going on the land. The act of hanging birds etc was for the land owner to be able to see how good the gamekeeper/pest controller was in doing his job.

[henry d]

I have seen it work and I imagine others have seen it not work, if the corvid is strung up in the same place for a few days then it won`t be a deterent.

[39TDS]

I string them up and make sure the others see me do it. It definitely works in keeping them away, although maybe not 100%.

[kent]

Its ok for keeping them off a 50ft radius but not much more. it does let the landowner know how your getting on with it though and if they ask do it. Not the best for non shooting / non farming townie comunity PR though

[Cranfield]

As henry d says, it probably works in some places and not in others.

I have never seen it appear to work and they seem to act like decoys on the farms I shoot, where the farmer strings them up.

[Scully]

We are often asked by landowners to string them on the fence where we have been shooting;just recently where corvids have been flattening barley and earlier in the year where a strip of covercrops had been sown.They reckon it works.

[MagiKelly]

I'm kind of glad to hear this happens all over. I knew about how moles used to be strung up to show the mole catcher was doing his job and also knew it was very much frowned upon now. I was a little concerned this was the same sort of thing but it seems it is, at least notionally, being done as a deterrent so justifiable on that level.

[bedwards1966]

Used to do it where I worked, they swore by it. With the wings pinned out i think it does keep them away, anyone who shoots crows knows they're very intelligent, so I have no doubt that they can see a crow pinned out and figure out that it may not be a sensible place for them to go to.

We used to use it on small fields that were hit by crows, and after wrapping silage which the crows would often attack and puncture the plastic.

[Dave-G]

I'd guess it's a bit of both in some cases. Though they may indicate they think it works it would be difficult for a shooter to claim he got 40 when he only got 6 last Friday morning. Nor could he say he got only got a dozen on a very quiet day... so quiet in fact because he werent even there.

[DNS]

I think it stems from the times hen farmers paid someone to shoot vermin on their land. How times have changed!

 

I still see it with moles from time to time when - I assume - a 'paid' service is still being provided.

[decoyally]

My granda always wants the crows hung up at lamb feeders cause he says it keeps them away.... Always listen to the grey haired fella!!

[shakin stevens]

ive seen it round silage bales these days round our way, i think they have been pecking through the plastic, seen em hung up in a tree looked like a sick

xmas tree instead of baubles.