Woodpeckers hammering on the coops!

[chickenlips]

Hey, does anyone know how to keep woodpeckers away? They pecked my year old coop in 5 places and now they're drilling my brand new coop! Would a fake owl help? I'm afraid if I put that up it might freak out my chickens.

 

[CarriBrown]

You could try some "no chew" stuff for horses. You paint it on the wood and it tastes and smells like pepper. Don't know if it would work but it's worth a shot.
Another thing I do with the horses to keep them from chewing is paint diesel fuel where they are chewing. It's oily so it stays on there and resists rain pretty well.

 

[rotzilla]

pepper flavored products dont work for birds. example if you want to get the squirrels out of your bird feeders you add red pepper to the feed. keeps squirrels out and birds eating so pepered flavored products dont work.

 

[keljonma]

Most small birds are afraid of cats, rats, hawks, owls and snakes. I've read that when they travel in flocks (with other species like chickadees), they may attack a predator. So I'm not sure the birds would be deterred if you painted those designs on the wood. My sister had woodpeckers drilling her shed. She tried the plastic owl and kept moving it around, but after a while, the birds weren't afraid of it. She doesn't have chickens. My guess would be it might frighten your flock.

I've read that if you can record the woodpecker's distress signal and play it in the area, it may keep them away.

Remember though that woodpeckers (like your chickens) are omnivores, So they are great predators for ants, beetles, caterpillars, plant lice, scale insects, spiders, weevils. You might look to see what insects are making homes in the wood. If you can rid the wood of the insects, the woodpeckers will move on.

Good luck!
regards,
keljonma

if edited, probably for typos...

 

[ivan3]

Don't know about coops, but we've had everything from the Snowys to the Pileateds going after our house (in the woods). Only thing that seems to work is our keeping plenty of suet cakes available as an alternative to drilling the walls!

 

[BeckyLa]

I've had red-bellied woodpeckers peck on metal awnings, metal tv antennas, besides drilling holes in wood. I've found that putting steel wool into holes they keep coming back to deters them, but that's about all. But they only kept it up for a couple of weeks then left.