Darn Sparrows, should I worry?

[sinistershelly]

All of the top of my chicken run is made of chicken wire. I need a permit to build a full roof out here in Colorado and do NOT want to deal with that. But everyday I look out the window, there are sparrows going nuts in the run eating scraps because they are so small they fit right though the holes. . Should I worry about them hanging out with the chickens? The chicks dont seem to even care what so ever about them being around but I do. I keep reading about not letting wild birds around your flock, but what about the people that have wide open acres that their chickens roam on?

 

[roz]

I don't know about whether the birds are bad or not, I know they carry parasites, but if you want to keep them out without a roof, you can use hardware cloth. We have it all over our run. We have a corrugated roof too, but the 1/2 inch hardware cloth keeps the moles, voles, birds and snakes out.

 

[Mattemma]

The parasite issue. I would block them out or trap them with a repeating house sparrow trap.

 

[Chemguy]

Quote:
Sometimes the chickens go out on the acres, sometimes the acres come over to them. I think that's inevitable, unless the run and coop are made of sealed plexiglass. If you decide that you just do not want the birds in there, you could do a second layer on the run using chicken wire. The sparrows will still poop into the run, though.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Welcome to the food chain!

You could look at the sparrows as doing you a favor by cleanning up excess feed before it attracks rodents...I am very liberal with the scratch and have alot of birds feasting when the chickens leave it (Now I don't have to buy bird food) I have sparrow, finches, cardinals, and 2 doves, don't worry too much, I think rodents carry more parasites than freewheelers like songbirds