20 acre melon field sounds like a good application for a propane cannon.

I don't know about Virginia but in Idaho there is a season and you can't kill them out of season unless you have a depredation permit. You want to be careful unless everyone involved can keep their mouths shut. I agree with others that a couple dead crows will scare others away. Here in northern Idaho ravens are a much bigger problem and they are considered raptors and protected under international treaties. That makes them much harder to deal with.

Keep in mind that Crows are a Federally protected Migratory bird.

Perhaps point owners to nuisance permit issues if regular season isnt open yet or not workable due to days. I seem to recall Virginia has a long season which means it would be limited on hunting days per week to stay in the federal migratory rules. Crows become issue around here in blueberries and the orchards tend to drive them out with automated noises---cannons, etc. But the downside with doing that exclusively here is that berries are grown for miles on end so they just bounce from one field to the next over and over. Berries do somewhat overlap with our regular hunting season though. Usually a couple of big shoots will drive a good % of them out.

There's also an active group of southern crow hunters that work their way thru the pecans. not sure the range of pecan growing but crow hunters tend to cover alot of miles. VA is definately in hunting range for a few people

Anyone remember Ed Zern? Wrote the Exit Laughing column on the back page of Field And Stream magazine. Ed was the crow hunting master of his time….

How to hunt crows
by Ed Zern
The system is based on a study of crow behavior conducted by research biologists at Phelps University which showed that crows have a relatively high level of intelligence and are actually able to count, but only in multiples of three or less, so that the conventional procedure for fooling crows-by sending several men into a blind, then having all but one of them leave -- is not likely to work except with very young birds, if at all. Thus, even if six crow hunters go into a cornstalk blind and only five come out, the crows probably won't be fooled, as they will have counted off the hunters in trios and will realize that one of the groups is short a man; as a result they will stay the heck away from there until the frustrated gunner gives up and emerges.
My system for successful crow hunting is childishly simple, and consists of the following steps:
1. Build a blind overlooking a cornfield frequented by crows.
2. Assemble a group of twenty five hunters, all dressed more or less alike and of nearly equal height, build, and facial characteristics. All the hunters should be clean-shaven, but twelve of them should be wearing false mustaches. The group should assemble in a barn or some sort of building not less than 350 yards from the field. (It would be prudent to have a few spare hunters on hand, to substitute in cases of pulled muscles, heart attacks or other contingencies.)
3. All of the hunters should be equipped with 12-gauge shotguns, but it is advisable that these be fairly light in weight, as it is important that all hunters going to and from the blind must travel at a dead run, so that the crows will not have sufficient time for their calculations.
4. As soon as a flock of crows comes into the area, eleven of the hunters are dispatched from the old barn to the blind, running at top speed. The instant they arrive, seven of them turn around and rush back to the barn.
5. When the seven hunters get back to the barn, they are joined by six other hunters and the thirteen of them sprint back to the blind as fast as possible; on arrival there, ten of them immediately turn around and dash back to the barn.
6. Before the ten arrive, eight more hunters are sent from the barn to the blind. When they meet the ten returning from the blind all of them switch hats and false mustaches while milling around in a tight huddle, then break it up and resume running to their respective destinations.
7. As soon as the eight hunters arrive at the blind, five of them turn around and rush back toward the barn; on the way they meet nine hunters running from the barn toward the blind, whereupon the hunters divide themselves into two groups of seven, one of which runs back to the barn while the other rushes to the blind, changes hats and mustaches, leaves two of its members there and dashes back to the barn.
8. Of the twelve hunters now in the blind, nine now rush across the fields to the barn while twelve of the thirteen hunters in the barn charge en masse from the barn to the blind; on arrival they immediately turn and sashay back to the barn taking two of the three hunters still in the blind, leaving a single hunter.
9. It is, of course, essential that all this be done at the highest possible speed, so that the crows will fall hopelessly behind in their arithmetic and in the consequent corvine confusion fail to realize that a hunter is concealed in the blind.
10. Eventually, the crows will learn to count faster, so that the system must be modified occasionally to keep ahead of them. In addition to having the hunters run faster, it may be necessary to introduce false beards and quick-change toupees as well as false mustaches, and to build a second blind on another side of the field so that the traffic will be triangular instead of simply linear, requiring the crows to start working on trigonometric permutations and geometric progressions in order to cope. In severe cases the hunters may be equipped with numbered jerseys from 1 to 25 but with the number 17 omitted and two numbers 21s. (This can also be done with roman numerals, when birds are very wary.)

His fields are actually in NC, and he already has a depredation permit for me to trap coyotes, maybe crows can be added to the permit. I will have him approach the warden about it when the permit is renewed. Next year I may put up a ground blind before the melons begin to ripen so the crows will get used to it to help with whacking a few.

Ole Ed Zern nailed it.

My father is a retired farmer and one of his projects is watching his local crows. His observations is that they generally send out one or two crows which act as scouts. If the coast is clear they call in the rest of flock. WI allows them to be hunted so if you really want to do damage you need to be concealed and let the scouts come in and send the all clear. When the flock shows up the hunters open up and take them all out at once. It can take years before a new flock moves in.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Here is Meat Eater recently eating crow. Why not?

https://www.trappersreport.com/story/MeatEater_Eat-Crow--video--Pardon-My-Plate

Are all states as crazy about the days like nc?

LOL no. Ours is just Nov. 5th- Feb. 28th. No limit

Our state has a crow season, also. But, it used to state in our regulations, “crows may be killed when committing depredation or about to”. The toughest game warden in our area once told me “when a crow draws his first breath, he is about to commit depredation”. Unfortunately, we no longer have that provision in our regulations. SSS

I think crows are included in the Federal Migratory Bird Act. That’s where some of the whacky seasons come from.

Crows are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Under the Act, crows may be controlled without a federal permit when found “committing or about to commit depredations upon ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated in such numbers and manner to constitute a health hazard or other nuisance.”

State wildlife agencies may require permits for the crow control, and may regulate the method of take. Federal guidelines permit states to establish regulations and crow hunting seasons. Regulations vary among states, and state or local laws may prohibit certain activities for control, such as shooting or trapping. Check with state wildlife officials for specific rules and regulations before initiating control.

Our regs say 2 seasons
Or
When they are doing damage or about to do damage...

They get that look in their eye ...they're about to do damage.