Me vs. wild birds, day 2

[Javamama]

So now that we have a few inches of snow on the ground the wild birds have discovered our chicken coop. Lovely mess they are making, not to mention the potential for disease and scaring the bejeebers out of me every time I enter the run. And my hens put out the welcome mat. I cannot believe it - for all the squabbling they do amongst themselves, they just let the dang birds eat, drink and be merry all over the coop. There must have been over a hundred in the area, hanging around in the tree just waiting for a turn. Our own creepy version of "The Birds". My dog has finally found a purpose for living during these dark days of winter with our new game "Lila, lets get the birds!"
The fight is on: DH and I have spent hours over the last couple days in the bitter cold stapling bird netting and extra chicken wire to every open crack of the run. At least we built it so that we could completely enclose it if need be. I have to run out every now and then and patch a hole that they have found, but it seems to be working. hope they give up soon. I feel bad for them, but I'm not feeding them.
Of all the critters we planned to protect our ladies from, wild birds never entered our minds.
This is the first winter we have had this problem - I'm guessing because we no longer have a rooster. Might have to remedy that.

 

[Henrietta23]

I was going to say "better birds than rats" but honestly, I'm not sure! They'd scare the bejeebers outta me too. I never thought about the rooster issue. This is our second year with George after about 10 years with only hens. We used to have blue jays in the pen eating scratch grains in the winter. I don't think I've noticed that recently. I'll have to keep my eyes open!

 

[Bettacreek]

Hmph. If it had been me, I'd be entertaining myself with a pellet gun. I'm mean like that.

 

[SKR8PN]

Hmph. If it had been me, I'd be entertaining myself with a pellet gun. I'm mean like that.

Me to. Besides that, it is "almost" free target practice!

 

[Bettacreek]

Me to. Besides that, it is "almost" free target practice!

Yup. It hones your skills better than a piece of paper. It's a valuable self sufficient skill!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Stick the cat in the chicken coop!

What birds in particular are you dealing with? Starlings, sparrows, and pigeons can be trapped and removed legally.

 

[Javamama]

They are starlings (I had to look them up online - I've never seen one this close before), we have no cat, I have no gun. Couldn't use a gun where we live even if I did have one. I don't see how one could trap hundreds of starlings If it was just a couple, sure, but there is an entire tree full of them. Nothing seems to scare them off, they just come right back so I'll have to starve them out and hope they find another feeding spot. The netting is working. It's been almost 24 hours and only 3 have gotten in. But they are not giving up. They descended as soon as I let the ladies out this morning. The nasty mess the have created is astounding.
I actually saw a blue jay and a cardinal in the mix too.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Yeah usually Starlings flock together this time of year into groups of hundreds or even thousands of birds. You see them fly around here and it looks like something out of a horror movie.

They aren't protected, and are often trapped by wild bird enthusiasts. Some people make quite the hobby of trapping and removing them permanently from the wild. Some people use simply funnel traps, while others use elaborate self-resetting traps. I think there are even snap trap type, that instantly kill the bird, I think those are more frowned upon, simply because native birds can sometimes be caught in them and killed.

LOL There was even a person on Craiglist rehoming their caged Starling that apparently even knew how to speak a few words. Intelligent and hardy animals, but highly invasive as you well know.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Is it at all possible for you to do the feeding and watering inside the coop?

I've moved all my feed/water into the coops.

Course, my chickens aren't even venturing out in this white mess we have right now, so i've not bothered with opening the runs, either.

 

[Javamama]

Rehoming starlings and keeping them in a cage. That's pretty funny.
They have been gone for about an hour now. Hopefully they have moved on, but I think they will be back. I think I'm going to keep everything closed up until the snow melts later in the week.