Corn-Crow Problem

Q: My wife and I spend the winter in Georgia but live in Virginia for the summer, where I plant a large garden. Last year I planted 1700 corn kernels but only 17 came up. I dug into several hills and there was no evidence of any seeds.

A: When you say the corn seed is not present in the hills I immediately think it’s crow damage.
When the little seedlings come up, a crow will walk along the row and pull them up one by one.
Sometimes they fly away with the seedling in their beak but sometimes they stand there and eat the seed and the wind blows the little leaves away. There’s not much you can do about this if you’re not there all the time to scare the crows away.