Sparrows!!!!!!

<raises hand> 

I've come to HATE house sparrows.   It is really what you said, no matter how you try to proof the pens, they still somehow find a way in!  It's like a coop would have to be 1/2 hardware cloth from floor to top, just to not make it so easy for them!   Example,  one of the peafowl set ups is solid tin roof,  shade cloth on the sides down to 2' from bottom, the bottom has stucco wire with chicken wire attached to it(was done specifically for sparrows. It keeps them out for the most part.. but they recently figured out how to get in one of the peafowl sections, not sure how they're doing that.. they are so wild they all flee at mere sight of people so I don't get to sit and watch how they are getting in.... grrrrrrrrr.

Anyways,  those Uncle Blaine's sparrow traps do work.   The hard part is making all other options inaccessible to sparrows so they're 'forced' to try the trap..  but if you have neighbors with bird feed stations.... like my next door does,    they just don't have a strong urge to figure how to get the feed in trap.

I am fighting a sparrow war, too. Over the summer they not only figured out how to get into the run, but they were entering the coop a dozen at a time and gobbling up all the food inside and staying overnight. Nothing like opening the people-door in the morning and getting a faceful of panicked sparrows! I took a piece of heavy garden cloth and cut strips into it, then tacked it inside the pop door to the coop. I had to gradually acclimate the chickens to the concept of walking through it by tacking back a few strands to make an opening in the beginning, but now they're pros and they go in and out through the strands in the cloth. No more sparrows inside the coop. Next step is to tack the cloth over the entrance to their enclosure, where I hang another feeder. It won't stop the sparrows from entering their run and helping themselves to the scratch, but it's already making a huge difference in the amount of feed I go through in a day.

Simple, really. Get one of those rat-proof treadle feeders. They'll still go for the scraps the chickens manage to kick out but can't get in the feeder itself. In addition, I took the feeder out of the coop. It's now in a separate place. So no critters getting in the coop any more since there's nothing in there to eat but the chickens themselves, but that's a different problem. Mine don't stay inside the coop except at night. And they can jolly well wait till I get myself out there in the morning to let them out before they eat.

STOP IT!!! Sparrows need to eat too! Do you realize how HARD life is for them in the wild? No sparrow war is happening here!

I had to take the feed out of coop too because of the sparrows. I've been fighting with them all year.  As soon as DH is up to it, he said he would make me a treadle feeder for my flock. Right now I sit out there when I first put food out and keep the birds at bay, but can't sit out there all day.

I understand nature needs food too but there is a limit. A few birds I can handle but when you get into 50 or more birds eating, that gets way too expensive to feed them. Oh and yes the poop on everything is very very nasty and irritating too. Luckily my girls haven't contracted any mites or lice but I don't want to wait till they do to get rid of the birds.

I started using a  sparrow trap this spring.  I stopped counted at 250 birds.  I was completely overrun with them.  I am now fighting a scaley leg mite problem in my flock and I'm convinced was brought in by the sparrows.

I also had to start feeding the hens only the amount of feed they would consume in the morning and evening so there was nothing left for the sparrows.

My problem has been greatly reduced.

Birdie, keep in mind that the English house sparrow is a evasive species.  Someone thought it was a good idea to bring them to this country. They don't belong here.   In a a  month or so I will begin the fight with the English starling, again another very evasive species that has no business being in this country.  They stay out of my coop in the spring, summer and fall but in the dead of winter they enter 30-50 at a time.  How do I know.  I sneak out, shut the pop door on them and then start dispatching them. It's disgusting but what's more disgusting is what they do to the inside of my coop.

I tried the strips of cloth like the one poster suggested but both the sparrows and starlings soon figured it out.

I used one of these sparrow traps and it works great.  It is a repeating sparrow trap so you can catch multiple birds without resetting the trap.  I have caught up to 20 sparrows at a time in it.  http://www.sparrowtraps.net/

I covered all openings with tree netting, stapled it tight. That cut down on the sparrows (flying rats) a lot. The best thing that happened was a female cat arrived and has been keeping watch. She clears them out quickly and does no harm to my chickens. Sparrows do carry deseases and their waste can cause lung problems in birds and humans.