New members decided to join the flock…wild sparrows

[StinkyAcres]

Can you get bird netting to cover the wire?

 

[RiDaGeckoGuy]

How much does it cost

 

[StinkyAcres]

How much does it cost

I don't know exactly how much you need, but maybe $30 at most.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bird+net...ird+netting,aps,98&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_16

 

[Debbie292d]

Do you feed wild bird seed in your bird feeders or scratch grains to your chickens? Those are the number 1 things they go for. We never had issues until the farmer across the road moved into the abandoned farm with her horses. THEN, we got sparrows.

I replaced all the seed from the wild bird feeders with ONLY black oil sunflower seeds. Sparrows don't eat those. Bonus as my chickens free range and eat what's spilled. Sure, the squirrels and chipmunks do too, but we faithfully DE the coop twice a month and keep the mites and lice off them.

I also stopped throwing them scratch. Instead, I ferment it and only give what the chickens will clean up in a day.

Sparrows don't like chicken crumbles/pellets, so if that's all that's available to them, they'll leave.

 

[Folly's place]

Not our sparrows! They eat sunflower seed in the wild bird feeders, far from the chickens, and like the chicken crumble just fine.
If only it was that simple!
Mary

 

[Debbie292d]

Not our sparrows! They eat sunflower seed in the wild bird feeders, far from the chickens, and like the chicken crumble just fine.
If only it was that simple!
Mary

Apparently different kind of sparrows or conditions as it clearly worked here. The sparrows the farmer brought that came over here all left and went back to her place. I can hear them there, but never see them here anymore. That's been about 5 years now.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Sparrows are easier to control than rats thank goodness. Get you a treadle feeder, inward swinging door and make sure the door is spring loaded to prevent it being pushed open, most of the Chinese made feeders like the Grandpa and the many clones have guillotine style doors and no spring pre loading. Those type of feeders requires days or even weeks of open feed tray training before you can start allowing the lid to move a bit to acclimate the birds to movement of the lid. Inward swinging doors are trained cold turkey, the birds know the door moves every time they use the feeder so the sparrows don't also get trained on what the feed is stored.

A few days of frustration and they will have to start hustling natural food or starve.