The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Mount-B on July 10, 2014, 10:55:22 am
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Hi, can anyone suggest a way of scaring starlings away from my hen feeders and drinkers. They are making a huge mess and fouling feed and water. I have an ad hoc feeder for the hens so that might be the problem. Any thoughts, suggestions gratefully received.????
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This doesn't really answer your question, but I quite like nipple drinkers and am moving towards them as more hygienic.
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I had considered them how do they manage through the winter?
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Yeah... Not got that far with them yet! Probably badly!
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We have this problem in the winter, they seem to go away for the summer. Tried shooting at them but this didn`t work anyway. A radio on during the day worked for a time but kept forgetting to switch it on, or changing the batteries. Made myself a scarecrow with a bright pink hat, man sized, called her Gloria, and put it next to the pop hole. This worked quite well and the chucks thought she was harmless and ignored her, my chucks are bombproof anyway. Put the scarecrow in the shed for the summer and out she will come when the starlings come back for the winter. Hope it works again this year.
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just be aware that starlings are reservoirs for gapeworm so keep on top of your worming. I lost 4 (3 after treating-8 were showing signs in total)hens to it this year and they had been wormed already this year.We have a lot of starlings and crows :(
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We used to have a problem with them until we put the feeders inside the coops.
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Thanks, for the comments, I have changed out the feeder for a larger top hat type and that appears to have helped. I'll have to keep an eye on things and see how it goes.