I walked into my barn today....

[miss_thenorth]

and about 50 little birds flew out.

After I have been treating for lice and mites for the last while, now I know how they are getting them! And they were eating all the chicken food!
Any advice on how to get rid of them? even if I closed the doors, they could still come in through the eaves--is there any way to scare them away?

 

[goldensunriseranch]

I have them too, they poop up my dutch doors when I have the top doors open and they land there prior to raiding the barn. They do seem to make more of a habit of it if I offer grains rather than crumbles, which they don't seem to like much. Same for the squirrels, I have to switch to a non-grained feed to break their habit, then I can treat the chickens for a while with it until they learn it's there again.
Very frustrating.

 

[paul65]

I have the same trouble my chickens are in a shed at nite and free range in the day sometimes when i go out about 20 or 30 little birds are in the shed i have killed about 15 in the last 2 months and the bad part is my neighbor has about 6 bird feeders out full of bird seed i guess they get tired of eating the some thing all the time lol.

 

[menageriemama]

Get a good cat or two? They may just scare the little buggars enough to keep them out. PS if you need a cat, I could help ya out

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
Got barn cats who are in and out of the barn throughout the day. thing is when the cat, or human leave, the birds come right back in and chow down.

 

[Jenski]

I have DE in the dust bath holes the hens like to frequent in the yard ~ and I noticed the other day that all our wild sparrows are using the holes too! Not sure what I can do when the cat's not around.

Well, with the DE treatments I guess we'll have lice-free wild birds around here.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I had a field mouse, and a chipmunk helping themselves to Obelisk's food yesterday and I closed the door so that a Carolina Wren couldn't come in too. sheesh...it's not like there's not food out there.

 

[Jenski]

Yeah, but EASY food is nice! Umm, could you pass the scratch, please??

 

[miss_thenorth]

Just thinking... form another thread, someone was talking about putting an owl decoy(?) to ward hawks away. this would work for small birds, wouldn't it?

I really don't want to be feeding these birds all winter,, and I really don't like dealing with the lice and mites.

Anyone have any experience with these owls??

 

[Dustoff79]

I use an artificial owl (looks real, head swivels in the wind), I had a problem with Flickers, they are like wood peckers and were all over my wood siding. I move the Owl every day, to different locations, it seems to work with the Flicker as well as the white-wing doves. My wife has since decided to put a bird feeder in the yard so, I guess I will find out if the owl works on the cardinals and other seed eaters or the desire for food is greater.