Disease carrying wild birds?

[RavenStorm]

I have a lot of wild birds in this area, and I really don't want them being in a lot of contact with my chickens when I let them outside in the run. These native birds are small enough o go through chicken wire, and even the big ones will probably end up sitting on the run/coop and pooping in the area that my chickens will be moving around in. This has me really concerned so I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to keep those birds away without freaking out my chickens (I'm guessing that fake owls will be too stressful for them).

 

[pips&peeps]

Fake owls don't work....

If they can get through the wire and there is food, they won't stay away. Try not to give corn because that attracts the sparrows and starlings.

You can catch and cull all english sparrows and starlings as they are invasive species.

Otherwise your only option is to get smaller wire or hardware cloth on your runs.

 

[RavenStorm]

Actually I think that the birds that are pests out here for me are protected by the state, so I can't trap them or cull them. I was able to prevent them from building nests in my backyard, but none of my neighbors have so all the houses around me have tons of nests right now.

I guess I will have to knuckle down and get that much smaller netting for the run, even if it is more expensive.

Thanks for the input though.

 

[NS2A]

I don't know of any state the protects English Sparrows. They are invasive, can carry disease and will destroy the nests of native and song birds.

http://www.avianweb.com/housesparrow.html

 

[RavenStorm]

Quote:
Lol, I'm going to blame this on yet another brain-fade due to finals. When I saw the word "sparrow", my head thought "swallow" which is currently the most populous bird in my yard. Them and house finches (which is weird because I thought they were supposed to fight).

 

[amazondoc]

Killing them won't help much of anything anyway, since more will just move in. Small netting is really the only thing to do.