How to keep wild birds from eating all my chickens' food?

[phoenixmama]

I swear, these wild birds are eating more of the chickens' food than they are! What should I try?

 

[horsejody]

Try meaner chickens. Mine chase them away.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have the same problem. Good luck !

 

[SoJoChickens]

If you figure out a solution, you could make a lot of money selling it

.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

I only throw the chickens a small amount of food at a time and let them eat it all up before I give them more. That way no one else can bother it.

 

[panner123]

I really don't mind feeding most wild birds as they keep the predator bird at bay.
But if you really need to get rid of them, you already have the solution. Buy those three great kids pellet guns. End of problem.

 

[Ky Chicken Fan]

My original pens are hardware cloth at the bottom, and welded wire field fence stuff at the top of the panels with an enclosed top. Wild birds were in there ALL the time, not only eating, but leaving their parasites behind.

I finally bought some stuff at TSC that (knock on wood) seems to have taken care of the problem pretty cheaply. It is some black netting stuff, that is supposed to keep deer out of your garden. It is a very fine plastic, but also very strong (and annoying, it catches on everything when you are working with it...) I can see how it could keep deer out, if one got tangled in it the animal would be stuck there forever I think

I believe I paid about $20 for the roll. I covered the welded wire with it, just used some of the tiny wire ties. The holes are small enough that birds can't get through, but you at a glance you don't even notice the stuff is there. I have tons of it left over, so the one roll is plenty for a long time.

 

[gcdrdoolittle13]

Alas, my daughter and I have the same problem: 20 million "tweety" birds dining at our four hens' free buffet! I'm ready to make Tweety Pies, but the doggone things are too small to pluck... I tried hanging a wild bird feeder in the front yard and that helped a little, but now I'm incurring extra expense feeding them, too. In one of my grandson's reptile magazines I saw an ad for a chicken feeder that the hen had to step on to open; since the hens are quite a bit heavier than the Tweeties, that sounded like it might work... I was interested, but also afraid they could lose toes, silly birds that they are. Has anyone used that kind of feeder? If so, how does it work for you?

 

[rainierlass]

I used the plastic bird netting as well - solved the problem! Had to rescue a hummingbird out of it one day tho......

 

[stilldeb]

My chickens don't like them either. So far, they have killed three of the little thieves!