How to keep sparrows/wild birds out of run!?

[ChristinaMc86]

Im loosing my mind trying to keep the sparrows out of my chicken feed and their coop and run altogether. My chickens free range in my yard all day. The run door is open so they can come and go as they please and so they have access to their food and water. Well the entire neighborhood of birds has decided that they want to come to my house to eat as well. Ive tried the CD thing.That worked for all of five minutes. Tried the fake owl, tried hanging pieces of material thinking maybe the movement would deter them. Tried making a tunnel out of the coop and blocking the door with plastic. Well the sparrows walked right through the tunnel with not even a second thought. I tried feeding in the front of my house hoping they would get full and not want the chicken food. Nope. And I also tried hawk and other birds of prey noises. They didn’t flinch. I bought grandpas chicken feeder also. But that didnt go over well. They are pooping in the chickens water and in their food and im afraid they’re going to bring them diseases…. Please pleaseIf you have any solutions I would love to hear them. Thanks so much!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Only way is to make sure there are no openings larger than a half inch. Won't work if the birds are free range unless you shut the door behind them until it's bedtime

 

[nuthatched]

Don't free range , keep your birds in their covered run.
Even if the sparrows weren't eating the feed, your hens have just as much of a chance of getting a disease from free ranging and going where sparrows go.
Or shut the coop when they're out.

 

[perkolator]

The only way is 1/2” hardware cloth everywhere. My main coop is all 1/2” HC but their extra run has some chicken wire and 2x2 square fencing at the top and overhead . Small birds get in through those holes and will enter the coop for snacks through the auto chicken door. Many times I’ve found small birds banging around stuck in the coop trying to figure out how to get back out. Not much to be done unless you fence it all in with HC

 

[raingarden]

Trap and eliminate the sparrows. English Sparrows and Starlings are not protected under the Migratory Bird Act.

 

[bhaugh]

I have a bad time as well. I now feed twice a day only as much as they can eat in 30 min and pull the rest. Chickens imo don't need to eat 24 hours a day and the wild bird issue has done down dramatically.

 

[ChristinaMc86]

Don't free range , keep your birds in their covered run.
Even if the sparrows weren't eating the feed, your hens have just as much of a chance of getting a disease from free ranging and going where sparrows go.
Or shut the coop when they're out.

So My free ranging is a little different. Im in New York (in a city) but I have a large back yard that they hang out in all day.

I have a bad time as well. I now feed twice a day only as much as they can eat in 30 min and pull the rest. Chickens imo don't need to eat 24 hours a day and the wild bird issue has done down dramatically.

Maybe ill try that out and see how it goes. There relentless.

 

[ChristinaMc86]

Don't free range , keep your birds in their covered run.
Even if the sparrows weren't eating the feed, your hens have just as much of a chance of getting a disease from free ranging and going where sparrows go.
Or shut the coop when they're out.

Whoops sent the response too soon. So they only go in the yard. My coop/run I would have to expand if they were going to be in there full-time

 

[linguini]

Where do you keep the food? Is it in the run? Is the run covered?
Can you cover your entire run/chicken yard with aviary net?

We have a set up with coop-run-chicken yard all connected, coop is connected to the run.
- The run is an 8x8x8 cube entirely covered and predator proof, attached to the coop
- food and water stored in the run,
- door to the coop from the run is open all the time,
- door from the run to the yard is closed nightly.
- the chicken yard, fenced with chicken wire+ deer net, hardware mesh apron is covered with aviary net completely, to keep the hawks away but no birds/squirrels can get in
- we added shade cloth on top of the aviary net this year to keep the wild bird dropping from the yard due to avian flu. The shades are removed in winter.

See below picture. The birdnet is held up with 2x2x8 poles/t-posts with wood board on top. We set up our vegetable garden inside the entire compound, bees/insects can still come in.

The entire yard is about 40x50.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I used plastic netting to keep out the yard birds it works great. It's the only thing besides hc that worked but much cheaper. My run is covered with metal now as there are lots of infected. geese in this area. I removed all bird feeders and they are gone for the most part but they came back when we have puddles from melting snow there's no way I could free range safely.