Keeping Wild Birds from Food...

[jonesgirl]

I can't seem to keep the wild birds from eating all my chicken's food... I thought about covering the run, but it is huge... Does anyone have a creative way to keep them out???

 

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

Target practice with a pellet gun. Switched from crumbles to pellets. Sparrow trap. Motion sensor owl.

We've tried all of these. Most effective is the pellet gun for starlings. Switching to pellets definitely helped with sparrows. The owl doesn't do much anymore, though it helped at first. The sparrow trap catches 5-10 sparrows a day, which are humanely disposed of, so at least those ones aren't returning!!

In winter, with wild birds and 24 chickens, I was going through 50 lbs of feed every 48 hours. Now, I'm down to 50 lbs of feed for 2 weeks, though I'm sure the warmer weather and free ranging help a lot.