Can I make feed less appealing to sparrows?

[nuthatched]

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

They're not likely to look up and register the shape

 

[clocker19]

They're not likely to look up and register the shape

They sparrows are getting in from the ground and the doors, not from overhead. There are tarps over the top of the run.

 

[clocker19]

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

I know. It's DIY enclosure. It needs to be improved. That is a project for the future. Hardware cloth is so expensive!

 

[nuthatched]

They're getting in from the ground and the doors, not from overhead. There are tarps over the top of the run.

Then put the snakes wherever they'd be most effective.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You pay for a treadle feeder long before you finally buy one. Even a bad treadle feeder will stop sparrows but if you are going to spend $130 or more you just as well get a feeder that keeps mice and rats out of the feed.

Key features if you want it to keep sparrows and rodents out.

An inward swinging door for safer use and faster training. If they tell you to block the door open for weeks during training, you will be training the vermin too.

The door needs to be spring loaded to preload the tension on the door. Springs increase resistance as they stretch out, the door become harder to open the more it opens. Without springs, the vermin just push the lid up or the door open and chow down. The spring should be infinitely adjustable as well so you can fine tune the feeder for your smaller birds and if sparrows are the only issue right now you can set the spring tension quite light. Leverage is involved, there might be 10 pounds of pull on the door to get it to open but only three to four pounds on the treadle to operate it. That might leave the door with only one to two pounds of resistance but that is enough to stop vermin.

The treadle step HAS to be narrow and distant or the vermin will gang up on the treadle and eat the feed. Around 7 to 8" distance between the treadle step and the feed is enough.

All metal of course, no plastic that can be chewed through.

 

[texsuze]

I have sparrow traps set perpetually--the house sparrows have increasingly plagued us in the past few years, ever since neighboring properties began to run more livestock than their land can support. Be sure to set the traps up somewhere where chickens will not be able to access them. Use bird seed as bait, or even junk nesting material (string, pieces of paper, etc) as 'bait' during nesting season. Check daily to remove non-target species (i.e. native birds). Humanely dispatch house sparrows once caught. Just keep trapping. I feel your pain.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Genius..... nesting materials....

 

[clocker19]

I have sparrow traps set perpetually--the house sparrows have increasingly plagued us in the past few years, ever since neighboring properties began to run more livestock than their land can support. Be sure to set the traps up somewhere where chickens will not be able to access them. Use bird seed as bait, or even junk nesting material (string, pieces of paper, etc) as 'bait' during nesting season. Check daily to remove non-target species (i.e. native birds). Humanely dispatch house sparrows once caught. Just keep trapping. I feel your pain.

Can you link to the traps you use?

 

[clocker19]

I bought some more bird netting. It seems to help although sometimes it just traps them inside rather than keeping them out. I need to find all the little places they might still be getting in.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You can try to trap an inexhaustible supply of wild birds or you can prevent them from getting to the feed in the first place.

The first option allows a steady stream of new birds bringing in disease and pests and attracting predators to the coop.

The second option, well, the birds just quit coming....