Is it ok to kill pest birds like finches and doves that eat your feed

[kathy utiger]

I have the dove problem, too, but want to do something creative to keep the doves out of the coop. Bird netting won't help, as the doves just walk right in the door which is open all day. I'm trying to think of a way to keep the doves out while letting the chickens in. Maybe some sort of daytime kitty door would work. Also, I'm thinking bead strands hanging down (like in an open-air meat market) that they could push through but the doves couldn't. Any ideas?

 

[Vacman]

IMHO, it's never acceptable to kill song birds. What type of feeder are you using? I just am not seeing this type of problem at my chicken coop. I think you need to gives us additional information and perhaps a picture or two.

 

[avjudge]

I have the dove problem, too, but want to do something creative to keep the doves out of the coop. Bird netting won't help, as the doves just walk right in the door which is open all day. I'm trying to think of a way to keep the doves out while letting the chickens in. Maybe some sort of daytime kitty door would work. Also, I'm thinking bead strands hanging down (like in an open-air meat market) that they could push through but the doves couldn't. Any ideas?

You may have more success starting your own thread as I'd imagine you're going to get a lot of posters (like the one just above me) reading page one of the thread and reacting to the OP rather than your question.

Is your issue native mourning (or other) doves (as opposed to pigeons)? It was never clear to me which the OP was dealing with.

I know that pigeons learn to push through bob doors - a row of hinged vertical rods - I have them for my (domestic) pigeons. I would think bead strands would be similar, but I'm not sure if mourning doves would be less bold.

I would imagine the sort of treadle feeder mentioned in this thread (and also in many of the "I have rats!" threads on this board) would be effective. It's kind of the reverse of the songbird feeders that close when something heavy (squirrel) perches on it - instead, it takes something heavy (chicken) to open it.

I hope others chime in with other ideas!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do a search here on "no-waste feeders." I made mine out of a rubber trash barrel and PVC elbows. My dog was the culprit, eating huge amounts of my chicken feed and turning into a little porker, lol! I made my first one out of a five-gal bucket but it wasn't big enough for my 20-some birds. Both work great.

 

[_Moon_]

It just kind of scared me that I had to do it. When I killed one of them blood just shot out of its mouth, I dont mean dripped out of its mouth, like it just SHOT out of its mouth, it was like 2.5 more psi than your average garden hose is what it looked like. I felt really bad, but it died fast so that was good

 

[nonya]

I feed them purina medicated adult chicken feed. I tried upgrading them to pellete rather than normal chicken feed, but the tiny sparrows ate the giant pellete feed for her chickens too, and they were SPARROWS. my neighbor also has those 6 doves come and eat up all her feed and she uses chicken wire and everything. I have also done everything I could too. She told me she spends 30 USD a week for giant bags of feed. Her chickens eat less than 5% of the feed, pest sparrows house finches and those 6 damn doves ate up the 95%. She has gotten so sick and tired of the sparrow and house finches she is going to give me all her chickens on april 2nd. She also has to buy different brands of food every week because of those god damn pest birds, it really stresses out her chickens. I also have a rooster and have tried to train him to attack backyard birds that come into the coop that try to eat feed but he doesn't see the pest birds as a threat... I also might delete this threat since it started a chat war

I put a tree net over my run. It cost me $25 at lowes

 

[Bryce Thomas]

Because im still getting updates on like a 2 month old thread, I have treadle feeders and no longer have a bird problem and hawks have moved into the area and eradicated all the doves for me

AKA its under control

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Because im still getting updates on like a 2 month old thread, I have treadle feeders and no longer have a bird problem and hawks have moved into the area and eradicated all the doves for me

AKA its under control

Thanks for the update. You should be able to ask a moderator to close the thread if you like. I think you will get that ootion if you click Report? Not sure.