Can I make feed less appealing to sparrows?

[clocker19]

We use pellets and port feeders. They also drink and bathe in the hens' foot baths. They do this with then hens right there, they just ignore them.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

We use pellets and port feeders. They also drink and bathe in the hens' foot baths.

I used netting to cover the run and that solved our wild bird problem!

 

[clocker19]

They go right through the netting.

 

[StinkyAcres]

They go right through the netting.

What kind of netting do you have?

 

[nuthatched]

Rubber snakes on top the netting

 

[clocker19]

What kind of netting do you have?

Whoops, I'm so stupid. I watched them for a while. They don't go through the netting. They are getting in where there's a small gap between the netting and the ground in some places and more importantly through the doors which don't have netting over them.

This is the netting.

How do you use netting over doors? Do you just drape it over the door and move it every time you go in/out of the run?

When initially I put up the netting I was thinking about attacks from overhead predators like hawks, not little stinky-dinks like sparrows!

 

[clocker19]

Rubber snakes on top the netting

Wouldn't that also scare the hens?

 

[nuthatched]

Wouldn't that also scare the hens?

No. They eat snakes

 

[clocker19]

No. They eat snakes

We have big pit vipers here that eat chickens. They're pretty scared of snakes!

 

[StinkyAcres]

Whoops, I'm so stupid. I watched them for a while. They don't go through the netting. They are getting in where there's a small gap between the netting and the ground in some places and more importantly through the doors which don't have netting over them.

This is the netting.

How do you use netting over doors? Do you just drape it over the door and move it every time you go in/out of the run?

When initially I put up the netting I was thinking about attacks from overhead predators like hawks, not little stinky-dinks like sparrows!

For doors and walls it's best to use 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth and cover any gaps around it with wood.