I have about 100 non-chickens in my coop...PICS!

[safarichick101]

Plus they are nonnative. And they are pushing out the natives

 

[Kittymomma]

Starlings are BAD! I'm a big softie too and adopt almost anything, but I declared war on the starlings around here on the day I watched one kick baby woodpeckers out of their nest so the starlings could use it themselves. They are a European songbird that was brought over as pets and the released/escaped birds are taking over. They're cavity nesters and have caused real problems with smaller woodpeckers and chickadees.

 

[Mahonri]

Starlings are the rats of the sky. (they don't like the heat so we have pigeons here)

They DO spread disease and you have a cleaning job on your hands.

And it all began with two stow a ways on a boat from England in the 1800s. Now there are millions here.

 

[Mattemma]

We have starlings and house sparrowa,but the sparrows have been more of a problem. I bought a house sparrow trap(HOSP) this summer from a guy in TX.It can be adujsted for the starlings too. It resets itself. I have caught a decent amount with it.Hoping to get more in the winter when there is less food out.Ofcourse I have to set free the other birds I catch that go for the low quality seed I set out.

This is the trap:

http://www.sparrowtraps.net/

By law you are allowed to kill the stralings and hosp.I hated to do it but the poop all over and killing baby blue birds were to much for me.

 

[gsim]

Starlings are prolific spreaders of diseases. You will have to do a complete clean out of your coop and immediate relocate of your flock or risk losing them. May have to press the garage into service. Be sure to wear a good dust mask too or you could get yourself really sick. You cannot wait on this at all no matter what if you value your flock.

When all this is past, take a look at whether you want your coop to be so open to whatever flies in. Granted, it was the snowstorm that caused this, but worth considering anyway. I am vulnerable too because my coop has both pop doors open all day every day. My run is too big to cover with netting too, so in a really bad storm, I could have it happen to me too. Having seen this, I would definitely close up the coop in a blizzard.

 

[halo]

Spectrumranch, how did you catch all of those starlings???

I used the sparrowcatcher this past summer since I had house sparrows taking over my barn and flying into the chicken pens. It works. The directions say to catch one and use that one as "bait". So I caught several immediately, and disposed of all but one. Put a dish of water in there and a little cracked corn. Next morning I looked out there and all I saw was a little black lump. I thought oh shoot, it croaked; I wonder what happened?

Well it had croaked, but what had "croaked" it was a teensy snake that had slithered between the 1/4 inch wire, somehow ate that sparrow, and then couldnt get out. I turned him loose at the farm I work at, and never had that happen again.

 

[Boyd]

how do starlings taste?

 

[Marlinchaser]

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I have heard the story of a man and his boat, but I thought he intentionally took two of everything, maybe I am thinking of a different boat.

 

[Dar]

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those are mighty small chicken wings ma!...lol

 

[Boyd]

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those are mighty small chicken wings ma!...lol

yeah sort of like the mourning dove right? You only eat the breast meat on those guys

Wrap a piece of bacon around it