A couple of days ago, we had another replenishment of the chicken family. 8 more chicks hatched.
But this joy was spoiled by the loss of some of the chickens from the last brood. Let me remind you that in early May we hatched the first batch of 6 chickens, but one of them was crushed by a chicken right in the nest, and the other two were carried away by crows. As a result, only 3 out of 6 remained.
Crows have become a real problem. They made several attempts on our chicks. They often flew past our house with other people's chickens in their beaks. Twice they managed to kidnap our chickens as well. The day before yesterday, one of the crows was going to attack again, but I noticed it in time.
I ran out of the house with a rifle and fired at the predator a couple of times. Both times I hit and the crow fell dead from the branch.
We hung the corpse in an open place so that the rest of the crows could see. And surprisingly it worked. For several days, crows no longer fly over our site.
Maybe of course it's just a coincidence, so for extra protection I made an improvised chicken tractor.
I hope all these measures will serve as a good help and the chickens will grow up safely.