Any ideas of how to stop House Sparrows from eating all the chicken feed???

[heronz]

Fruit tree netting with the smallest holes.
Made for keeping birds off trees -works great on top of the runs especially if you already have wire on top.

 

[4 the Birds]

Fruit tree netting with the smallest holes.
Made for keeping birds off trees -works great on top of the runs especially if you already have wire on top.

+1 Your run will need to be enclosed with netting or small hole screening. I bought a couple of fake horned owls and they do a great job of keeping the birds away. I use to have many many starlings that would steal dog food and also get into the run and in the coop (the run door is open since I free range). The owls work great! You just need to move them around once a week so that the birds don't get wise. The girls and the roosters do not mind the dummy owls at all!

 

[Jay-Mar28]

Building and putting up house wren boxes around the chicken coop and around your property will also deter house sparrows from hanging around. Wren boxes have smaller holes so that the sparrows cannot nest inside them and once a wren takes up residence she will be aggressive towards the sparrows chasing them off along with finding and destroying their eggs and young. A house wren also sings very beautifully and are great for eating garden pests.

 

[cywu]

see this link

The design can be attached to any buckets, which will becomes a sparrows proof chicken feeder. The attachable unit can be purchased in Ebay
cywu

 

[horsesnchkns]

I'm having a terrible time with what I think are sparrows. I'm in central Texas... They are eating all my chicken feed (crumbles). My girls aren't laying like they should (pretty much all summer and now into Fall) and the only thing I can think is it's those stupid birds. There are probably 5 to 10 of them in the coop every time I go out there. I have the coop door open all the time, and the chickens have an enclosed "yard" where they hang out during the day. I put some plastic mesh over the door opening to about 3 ft off the ground so the chickens can get in and out. I have closed all "holes" there may be, other than chicken wired.

I considered a fake owl or rubber snakes... Picking up the food isn't an option... Any thoughts on that?