Birds eating my chicken pellets

[jdm]

Can anyone provide some tips to keeping what appears to be Barn Swallows from eating my chickens feed??? My chickens are free ranged everyday in our yard. I let them out every morning and leave the pen door open just incase they need some cover from our "friend" the Hawk, who checks out our yard on a daily basis. However the swallows can eat 3 to 5 lbs. of feed a day out of the feeder, and they can fit through the smallest of spaces to do this. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[CMV]

This is an on-going issue with many folks here, although the culprits are usually massive swarms of starlings. You could institute feed times. Make food available to your birds twice a day for 15 minutes to half an hour, and then remove it for the remainder of the day. Free-ranging will allow the chickens to fill in the chinks between meals. The other option is to use 1/2 inch hardware cloth and enclose the feed stations with openings just large enough to allow chicken access, but any openings will also allow swallow access.

 

[jdm]

Thanks for the tips......Ill try the feed times, early morning and night, cause the birds seem to be around from about 7 am till late afternoon.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I had this issue as well and I've found a good solution. My 50lb dog food comes in these heavy duty plastic type bag. I put it lengthwise and cut strips about 1inch width down one whole side going into the bag about 3/4 the way. (kinda like a hair comb) The part I didn't cut I stapled along the top of the door frame. I had to do this to my big door as well as my pop door. My animals had problems with the pop door, they were scared of it and wouldn't go out/in it so I just cut the strips to a shorter length where they would go it. But I no longer have barn swallows in the coop!!!