Birds!! Grrrrr

[sommrluv]

There are birds everywhere, they get in the runs between the chicken wire and are nesting in the roof of my henhouse.

I think they like to pick through the chickens poo or something. I use the wire that's one up from hardware cloth, but they come in anyway. Most of them are finches.

Anything I can do? Shiny things? Fake Owl?

I'm concerned about birds passing diseases.

 

[CMV]

Smaller openings in your wire? Unfortunately, wild birds like the cushy set-ups of their domestic cousins, so they will visit as often as they can and even try to live there if you give them a chance. Wild birds do spread parasites and disease, and they can eat a phenomenal amount of food if you have certain birds (starlings come to mind), so it is a good idea to discourage them. Short of re-wiring your whole run- top and sides- with 1/2 inch hardware cloth I don't think you will have much luck, though. Shiny things seem to have little effect on their presence. I can't testify to the efficacy of the fake owls because I have never used one, but maybe someone else will chime in.

I view the wild birds as my first line of defense against hawks with whom I have an on-going war. I tolerate the birds eating my feed and infecting my birds with mites and cocci because it is not infrequently that I find piles of feathers in my yard that are not my chickens/ducks/geese but rather my uninvited guests. I try to put a positive spin on things that irk me.

Good luck.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

My chicken pens are lined with screen, the kind they line windows and screen doors with. It comes in wide widths, and is not too expensive, especially if you get the plastic screen, not the metal screen. No birds in the run, and it cuts down on rats & mice, too.

 

[Mattemma]

I have a sprraow trap. My problem is the robins more than the sparrows.