Feeding Wild Birds

[GRB73]

I'm curious to know if chicken owners can feed wild birds or is it a bad practice due to increased risk of disease transmission to the chickens? Also, in that the presence of feeding wild birds might bring more hawks to the yard. What are your experiences/opinions?
I have a very small back yard with a flock of 3 chickens. I love to feed the wild birds in the winter and I'm fortunate to have many different species come to the feeders. Suet and BOSS are usually on the menu. The girls free range a few hours a day when I'm home and I often find them under the feeders (of course!) Scratching around for dropped seed.
I started worrying my girls would catch wild bird diseases/parasites by doing this so I moved the feeders to the front of the house where the chickens couldn't access them. Unfortunately the traffic and activity keeps the wild birds away.
So am I being overprotective? How do other chicken keepers deal with this? I'm thinking about moving the feeders back but placing chicken wire in a wide circle around them. Maybe this is the compromise. What a sight! My poor neighbors.

 

[mandelyn]

The concern with it is the droppings. Preventing chicken access to the ground below the feeders may help.

 

[Callender Girl]

Maybe I am naïve, but since most of my birds are daytime free-rangers, I haven't given much thought to wild birds introducing diseases. I suppose it's possible, but I don't know how I would keep the "locals" away from my birds. Especially since the chickens like to dig around in leaf litter, garden beds, etc., where wild birds also look for food.

It does bring to mind when one of my miniature goats got sick with what's known as "the circling disease" -- listeriosis -- which the vet said COULD have come from contact with just about anything in the environment, including bird droppings. Although often fatal, Gordy pulled through, thanks to vet care, 10 days of living in the basement, being given water through a syringe and getting feedings of cut-up grapes (his favorite food) until he quit circling.

If putting a ring of chicken wire around the bottom of the feeders make you feel safer and/or helps protect your chickens, I say, do it. Your peace of mind is worth whatever discomfort the barrier might cause your neighbors.

 

[DobieLover]

I went through this very same debate when we decided to get chickens. We had an elaborate wild bird feeding station that attracted a very large variety of birds. We were out on the deck near the station eating lunch on two occasions when a kestrel flew right between us to hit the feeder. We also see red tail hawks fly over nearly daily and have seen some bald eagles wander up from the river to soar over our house.
So we made the decision to stop feeding wild birds.
Yes, the chickens will still be exposed to wild birds and their droppings. But by feeding, you bring in A LOT more birds and you definitely attract raptors to the property. Since stopping the feeding, we've had no visits from raptors.

 

[aart]

I quit feeding wild birds when I got chickens, justified by hawk activity and disease vectors...but really felt, for a long time, that we should not be feeding them anyway.
It just ain't natural.
If you want to supplement the wild birds, plant more of what they naturally eat.

ETA: also the cost, wild bird seed is expensive....would rather feed chickens.

 

[townchicks]

I quit feeding wild birds years ago, because it brings rats. I still feed hummers, though.

 

[RonP]

I used to keep a feeder fulled with wild bird seed also.
Had dozens, possibly hundreds visiting daily. Quite a variety.
Fed/supported quite a few families. Very entertaining.

Moved to a new to me home in 2005.

Fortunately the move was during the summer months when natural food was still somewhat plentiful.

It haunted me endlessly the possibility of the misery I may have unintentionally created when the food supply ended for these wild animals abruptly. I know without a doubt there were nesting sites, and dense populations, created within close range to that feeder...

If you feed, please consider the consequences and possible suffering, should you ever stop, even temporally, especially during the food scarce seasons.

Hope this helps.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I used to feed birds a mixed seed year round and added suet from November through April.
A couple of years ago the state suggested only feeding birds during winter, because of a increasing bear population, coming out of the forest and destroying bird feeders.
Well I slowly decreased the seeds during the summer and took down one of two feeders, until the bag was empty.
Last winter I only put out suet. I bought a second double suet feeder and have four suet cakes out, November through April. My first Flock are allowed to forage an hour before sunset daily, weather permitting and do have access to the front yard where the bird feeders are. But there is a lot less wasted seeds on the ground. GC

 

[GRB73]

Thank you for the thoughts/ideas. I've decided to keep the seed feeder in the front of the house away from the flock. When the snow falls, wild birds will find it. I left the suet cake in the backyard because it is not messy.

I only feed from December through April. I've spent the last 16 years replanting my yard with seed/fruit bearing plants but by this time of the year it is all nearly gone. With the high rate of development around me and natural habitat being replaced by lawns, I figured our wild feather friends could use the little extra help.