We have been having issues with sparrows coming into the chicken run and eating all the food, when I first got the chooks there was only one or two resident sparrows taking a bit of food here and there, it wasn't a problem then. Just after spring this year, practically over night we had a flock of them in our back yard taking food from the chickens in one day that would usually last them 4-5 days! My husband and I were searching all over the net for a trap to buy but our options were very limited. Everyone is either on holiday, we had to wait a week for the trap to arrive or/and it cost in excess of $130+ (some where $300!!).
Anyway, thought this might be helpful to other chicken owners who might have issues with sparrows/pest birds. We found a plan for a bird trap. http://www.indianmynaproject.com.au/sites/default/files/media/docs/PG_trap_intructions.pdf . The only thing we modified was the trap entrances, I made the internal entrances a slight bit smaller and using the metal mesh itself, I made little spikes with it so they sparrows can't try and get back out once they enter.
We bought all the materials needed to make this trap for $28-29, made it within a couple of hours (with heaps of left over material for another trap if need) and left it in our backyard with bird seeds, bread and chook feed on offer. We had our doubt at first, and it took us over 1 day before the birds were comfortable enough to enter the cage. We caught 5 birds on that first day and 2-3 every day after. We are currently on 13 birds count and there are still a few more before we are sparrow free in our yard. We disposed of the birds with 10sec of gas from the exhaust pipe and buried the bodies in the compost bin...at least they will make themselves useful to our veggie patch next year.
I found it so hard to find information on trapping pest birds when researching for ideas, this thread might be useful to someone who has had the same issues.
edit: spelling
Anyway, thought this might be helpful to other chicken owners who might have issues with sparrows/pest birds. We found a plan for a bird trap. http://www.indianmynaproject.com.au/sites/default/files/media/docs/PG_trap_intructions.pdf . The only thing we modified was the trap entrances, I made the internal entrances a slight bit smaller and using the metal mesh itself, I made little spikes with it so they sparrows can't try and get back out once they enter.
We bought all the materials needed to make this trap for $28-29, made it within a couple of hours (with heaps of left over material for another trap if need) and left it in our backyard with bird seeds, bread and chook feed on offer. We had our doubt at first, and it took us over 1 day before the birds were comfortable enough to enter the cage. We caught 5 birds on that first day and 2-3 every day after. We are currently on 13 birds count and there are still a few more before we are sparrow free in our yard. We disposed of the birds with 10sec of gas from the exhaust pipe and buried the bodies in the compost bin...at least they will make themselves useful to our veggie patch next year.
I found it so hard to find information on trapping pest birds when researching for ideas, this thread might be useful to someone who has had the same issues.
edit: spelling
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