The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Rosie posie on July 18, 2012, 10:02:04 am
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We have a swallows nest, not in their usual place in the old goat shed, but in our goose house of all places! ;D
They have been hanging around for a few weeks, and because our geese are brooding young we have kept a distance, so weren't sure if they'd built a nest.
They now swoop out over our heads when we open up in the morning, and we have had to make an access hole so that they can come and go when the door is shut.
Cool eh? :D
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We have them in out pig arks, they don't seem to mind each other though how the pigs put up with their incessant racket when they feed their young i don't know!
Lovely to see them.
Mandy :pig:
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Has anyone ever been hit by a swallow? We have them in our barn and whenever I go in there, they swoop out and always duck!
Helen
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Has anyone ever been hit by a swallow? We have them in our barn and whenever I go in there, they swoop out and always duck!
Helen
yes they do it to us as we go in and out of the byres/stables, once had one get stuck on a hanging flypaper :( so we don't use them anymore. Sometimes the speed they fly about at i wonder how they manage to stop in time and not crash into their nests. We had 4 of them sat on the roof truss in the stable whilst Clover farrowed, it was like they were inspecting what was going on.
mandy :pig:
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I have them in all our buildings, going in and out it risky to say the least.
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They are so fast aren't they? :o
My neighbour has a covered area where she hangs her washing when it's raining, swallows nest directly above the line every year, so they hang an upturned umbrella underneath the beam to catch the droppings or they would spatter their clothes! ::)
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Our swallows take great delight in aiming their droppings specifically at the washing on the line (especially if it's big white sheets), the car, and yesterday one of the dogs who copped a big splodge. I'm sure they take delight in their accuracy.
They hate the cat and dive bomb her whenever she hangs around outside. In return, she lies on her back pretending to sunbathe, but slyly zaps out a paw if they come too close. It seems like a game for both sides :cat:
We have some each year nesting in the hen houses. It seems to be impossible to stop them, but they do seem to be associated with red mite infestations, so we would rather they nested elsewhere (I'm not sure if they bring the mites with them, or simply that when they are there we have a population boost of mites). However, after they have flown all that way from Africa I'm not going to shoo them away :thumbsup: We do knock the nests down after they have gone south for the winter, and use the burner plus diatomaceous earth liberally.
At the beginning of the swallow season we were worried as there were so few birds returning, but now we have a few pairs and lots of young, in spite of the rain :thumbsup: