4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[surferdog]

Wondered what the attraction was for this part of the garden. The blackbird is throwing down seed for them! I guess now I'll have to fence it off because of the health implications (Run chickens.... we're all going to die! )

 

[sandyhas3chucks]

I sprinkle stalofan f weekly under my bird table . hope that is good enough as the wild birds have freerange of my garden

[jill the potter]

Maybe dumb question, but why would you have to fence off this area?

[surferdog]

I don't think they're supposed to 'fraternise' with wild birds because of the risk of disease. Probably too late now..... and anyway I'd rather see them running round occasionally than shut up all the time. Best to live a full life with all the associated risks.....

[jill the potter]

I agree. Can't see how you can have both. However, Korma has started chasing off other birds, particularly backbirds, from the garden. Thought the cats were bad enough!! Do anyone else's girls do this? Has really confused the blackbirds I think

[sandyhas3chucks]

Dove's allowed .. pigeons chased away. all others ignored

[Guest]

I'm afraid our girls forage under the bird table all the time

 

 

[helenmb]

If they are free ranging in any case and birds are in your garden then I would think that they would be no more likely to 'catch' anything from the wild birds by scavenging below the feeders. Sprinkling the Stalosan is the best option if you have some.

[moomin]

Maybe I'm just unlucky then, my Skye has been ill for over a month and only just getting better. Her illness (some sort of bacterial infection with the most awful white diarohhea sp?) co-incided almost exactly with me hanging up two bird feeders that I'd got a couple of weeks before for my birthday. They used to forage about underneath all the time.

 

When I asked the vet (an avian specialist) whether this had been a factor in her illness he said that it wasn't a good idea to encourage wild birds into the garden if you kept chickens and told me that it would need to be 'addressed'.

 

I know you can't stop them coming in your garden, but our bird feeders attracted loads of birds - as they would! I even used to put live mealworms out for them. It didn't help that Skye was moulting at the time so was at a low ebb and as such more vunerable.

 

It's a risk we have to weigh up - same as foxes with free-ranging I guess

[abwsco]

Our bird feeders are in the chickens bit of the garden and the bird table is just outside it. We also get the wild birds flying into their run to pinch the food. I'm not going to move them and will just put stalosan down.

 

Hope Skye is on the mend now moomin.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I agree. Can't see how you can have both. However, Korma has started chasing off other birds, particularly backbirds, from the garden. Thought the cats were bad enough!! Do anyone else's girls do this? Has really confused the blackbirds I think

 

My 3 louts see off the magpies and I'm sure I saw a green woodpecker exiting stage right at a rate of knots the other day..

 

Sha x

[moomin]

Hope Skye is on the mend now moomin.

 

Yes she is thanks, abwsco, took a while though I think Stalosan is a pretty good 'catch all', it even gets rid of Coccidia which the wild birds can carry This is what the vets thought my girl had initially.

[Busybird]

The lawn under our bird table has been scratched totally bare by the chooks foraging for fallen sunflower hearts. OH is 'in charge' of feeding the wild birds and our girls move as quick as they do for anyone when he appears from the back door and heads for the big shed that houses the wild bird feed. They know that he will throw a few handfulls in their direction when he tops up the feeders.

 

This is the OH who raises his eyes to heaven when I talk of my dream of a walk in run, a cube and a flock of chickens. And when I see him with our three I know it is worth keeping on with that dream

[helenmb]

This is the OH who raises his eyes to heaven when I talk of my dream of a walk in run, a cube and a flock of chickens. And when I see him with our three I know it is worth keeping on with that dream

My dream turned into reality with a Cube, Walk in Run and now 7 girls! Sending positive thoughts to your OH.