Hi, everyone!
I've noticed that pigeons like to bathe (specifically in the winter months if I remember correctly? I do not recollect them doing this at any other times) in our open-top chicken waterer (it's more like a shallow pot that we just pour water into and leave it uncovered throughout the day). The hygiene went immediately into question upon noticing that, and my father welded a pretty loose mesh from some old metal fence siding scraps that were lying around into a net to stop the pigeons from bathing in the water pot.
The issue that came in some time after and really dawned on me just a few weeks ago is that the birds (both the chickens and pigeons) sometimes stood on the mesh, probably for no other reason than just to spite me and my existence . While not to the same extent, hygiene again comes into question since their feet are sometimes touching the water and they can very easily poop in the pot. I believe that this is a pretty big issue, and I've thought of two ways I could solve it.
(Taking into account that we held about 19-20 chickens at capacity, yet now we are holding about 11-12 chickens)
Should I:
Cheers!
I've noticed that pigeons like to bathe (specifically in the winter months if I remember correctly? I do not recollect them doing this at any other times) in our open-top chicken waterer (it's more like a shallow pot that we just pour water into and leave it uncovered throughout the day). The hygiene went immediately into question upon noticing that, and my father welded a pretty loose mesh from some old metal fence siding scraps that were lying around into a net to stop the pigeons from bathing in the water pot.
The issue that came in some time after and really dawned on me just a few weeks ago is that the birds (both the chickens and pigeons) sometimes stood on the mesh, probably for no other reason than just to spite me and my existence . While not to the same extent, hygiene again comes into question since their feet are sometimes touching the water and they can very easily poop in the pot. I believe that this is a pretty big issue, and I've thought of two ways I could solve it.
(Taking into account that we held about 19-20 chickens at capacity, yet now we are holding about 11-12 chickens)
Should I:
- Make another spot for water somewhere further in our field, so that the pigeons theoretically use that over the water pot in our chicken yard
- Replace that piece of junk water pot with something better (perhaps one of those reservoir waterers commonly used for chicks?
Cheers!