Wild Bird Pests!! How to get rid of them?

[PouleNoire]

We have this crazy wild bird problem! Sometimes, in the mornings as we let the chickens out numbers in the range of 40-50 birds will fly out of the coop! The birds are wild pigeons and these black things that we don't know what they are, annoying birds is what we call them. They poop ALL OVER stuff in the chicken coop and eat all of their food and scratch!

Anyone else have this problem and/or ideas to help GET RID of these birds!! They have been doing this all winter and don't show signs of stopping now that it's spring.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

I think the blacks are starlings.They range very large.I haven’t had this issue but certain times of year they come and sit in our trees and OUR SO LOUD and annoying cause it’s just hundreds of them.Id scare them every time you geta chance,so you have a dog?My chickens fight wild birds,escpecially the bantams So they don’t Seem to hang around.

 

[PouleNoire]

Yes, just looked them up they look very much like starlings..ugh annoying things. They're not very loud but there are tons of them. I do have dogs but they don't get along with the chickens very well..long story. They will fight them if they land on the ground and peck at the sometimes in the coop but other than that, not much.

 

[21hens-incharge]

How are they getting in the coop?

If they can get in so can predators. I would get to closing up the gaps with hardware cloth.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Maybe try a scare crow,wild birds carry too many parasites and disease and the flocks are large so things like that go rampid fast.

 

[PouleNoire]

OK, good idea. I am aware of the diseases and such, that's why I want them GONE

 

[PouleNoire]

How are they getting in the coop?

If they can get in so can predators. I would get to closing up the gaps with hardware cloth.

Just during the day when the coop door is open and I think it doesn't fully close at night so we are already planning on fixing it.

 

[21hens-incharge]

How big is the door? Is it like a human sized door?

The wild birds don't enter any of my coops for 2 reasons. My pop doors are low and small and my runs have wire to small for them to fit in.

 

[PouleNoire]

The coop is a converted 10x10 shed, doors are human sized so I can see why they would be a problem. Most of the birds are there in the morning though so I'm hoping after we fix the pop door they'll be less of an issue.

 

[21hens-incharge]

The reason I asked about door size is the coop I had in the country had a horse sized door and starlings would sometimes head inside.

Best thing I can recommend is using a chicken sized door at chicken height.