Neighborhood Bird Invasion

[ChickensRDinos]

I live in the middle of the city so I have a very small yard. I have only 5 chickens that live in a small coop with the nesting boxes and roosts on top and a small run on the bottom. My whole yard is gated, so in general I just let the chickens out during the day so they can wander about and have a little more space and only coop them up when the weather is bad.

This has been lovely for almost a year now until recently when all of the neighborhood birds discovered us and will not leave. They are flying in and eating the food (one even laid an egg in the nest when she got accidentally shut in one night!) and I know wild birds can carry all sort of nasty stuff so I do not want them near. They are just generic little brown city birds that could fit in the palm of my hand. They hop around and are generally assholes and are not afraid of me or my dogs in the least. I even got desperate and tried shooting them with my Red Ryder but they just laugh at me.

I think the answer is that I just need to stop letting the girls free range and extend the run and keep them enclosed. I am probably being silly for expecting anything different, but thought I would take a shot and see if anyone had any suggestions for letting my girls out while avoiding unwanted guests. It seems a shame to shut them in.

Thank you!


Here is my coop in case that helps:

 

[am farmer]

I have wild birds around my chickens all the time even to pairs of doves that dine with them in morning but if you dont like wild birds around then your going to have to extend choop with a cover over it but birds will be birds

 

[The Big Dog]

Gday chickensr, Yeah, those little birds can drive you "Batty". I think you know they are only there since they discovered an easy food source.
My suggestion would be.......
1)... cover the feed while your birds are freeranging.
2)...Shut the coop up while you birds are freeranging, in my opinion this is the best option, just means you may have to have an "outside" nest box.
I dont know if you have seen the chicken feeders that only open when a chicken stands on the pedal (like a kitchen bin), they are excellent.

I also discovered that one of those lifesize plastic hawks (not owl) work wonders as long as you move it around every couple of days. Oh. and dont just hang it on a piece of string.......have it sitting on something.
Its also very easy to make a sparrow trap but you will get sick of killing them.
You must do something 'cause they will just keep bringing more and more "Friends" home for a free feed.

Cheers...........The Dog

 

[Ted n Ms]

They are just generic little brown city birds that could fit in the palm of my hand. They hop around and are generally assholes and are not afraid of me or my dogs in the least. I even got desperate and tried shooting them with my Red Ryder but they just laugh at me.

The brown generic birds are most likely English sparrows.
google treadle feeder. I made one and it works great.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

We are in the woods and cover our run with deer netting. It's inexpensive, comes in a roll, and is 7 feet wide. We just keep cutting strips and attaching with zip ties until the run is covered. Of course, depends on your run size as to if this would be feasible.

We do it to keep our girls in but it also keeps the other birds out.

 

[Aschenfire]

The doves that live around here LOVE my backyard and even more so now that my 7 week old Seramas are out on the porch in their stacking pens. I think it is because the Seramas are about their size, and maybe they think they are just super-fancy Doves of some sort They can't get IN the pens, so it's no big deal. There are usually 5 or 6 of them right there around the porch and pens, hanging out like Serama Groupies. LOL!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Gday chickensr, Yeah, those little birds can drive you "Batty". I think you know they are only there since they discovered an easy food source.
My suggestion would be.......
1)... cover the feed while your birds are freeranging.
2)...Shut the coop up while you birds are freeranging, in my opinion this is the best option, just means you may have to have an "outside" nest box.
I dont know if you have seen the chicken feeders that only open when a chicken stands on the pedal (like a kitchen bin), they are excellent.

I also discovered that one of those lifesize plastic hawks (not owl) work wonders as long as you move it around every couple of days. Oh. and dont just hang it on a piece of string.......have it sitting on something.
Its also very easy to make a sparrow trap but you will get sick of killing them.
You must do something 'cause they will just keep bringing more and more "Friends" home for a free feed.

Cheers...........The Dog

Thank you so much. Great advice!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

The brown generic birds are most likely English sparrows.
google treadle feeder. I made one and it works great.

Thank you. This looks fun to build as well.