Question 2

[Lucylou]

I have a purpose built run full height with a stable style door so one half can be closed. I let my girls out during the day when I'm home & leave the door open. The run is wood frame panels with weldmesh across & roof too, part of the roof has a tarpaulin over it.

Over the last few weeks I've repeatedly found at least one wild bird in there at night when I go to close the run. Its usually a Robin, whether its the same one I don't know. One day there were 2 Robins & 1 other smaller bird (not sure what it was ) in there! I've tried closing the top half as I thought this would stop the wild birds but not my girls getting in but it didn't. As its sometimes dusk when I close them up its very difficult to see these little birds & I have found them in there in the morning so they must have been in there all night. This is obviously very worrying for the wild birds & my girls too!

Does anyone have any suggestions what I could do or even why this Robin seems to like coming in ? Its obviously mistaken the area for somewhere nice to roost but I need to stop it!

 

[Icemaiden]

Hi LucyLou.
I've had the same thing occasionally, & twice over Christmas. I suspect that the robins fly in by accident the first time, find a source of food and water & think "hey, this is good!". Then when it comes to trying to leave the run, they seem to get a bit confused as they can see the outside, through the wire, but take quite a while to figure out that they can only leave through the door, not through the wire mesh.

One morning recently I found, like you, a robin shut in the run. I left the door open for it to escape, & before it had found its way out, another robin came in to join it (or possibly to show it the way out...)!

My main concern is that they might bring in disease that could affect the hens.

My best suggestion is that you check the run for interlopers before you shut it up at night; if you do this before dusk, it'll be easier to see (as well as safer for the girls). You don't really want to shut the hens out in the daytime in case they want access to their feeder or drinker (or hopefully the nestbox)...

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Icemaiden, yes, I too have been concerned about the disease aspect. I wondered if I dangled something in the upper door opening like say CD's on string, it might deter them. But this is now a secondary concern to my other problem (see post: Oh O!) much more of a health risk

 

[Marigold]

The two problems are linked, but the bird one is easily solved. Assuming your run has a roof, either mesh or solid panels, just shut the door behind the hens when they have finished laying and are allowed to go out for an hour or two. They don't necessarily have to be out all day, and I'm afraid that all of the ideas you have had for keeping birds out will not work - as anyone who has tried their hardest to keep birds out of a fruit cage will tell you, birds will creep in through the smallest hole if food is to be found.

 

[rick]

Since keeping chickens we have so far accumulated a small flock of robins (that zoom through the garden like bullets) a couple of sparrows, a blackbird and a pigeon which hatched last year from a nest in the rose bush and keeps returning to the old family home

 

[Lucylou]

Thank you, have solved the problem. We actually saw how Mr Robin was getting in, he was wriggling under the run wall through a hole made by my other interloper, couldn't believe it! That accounts for how we'd keep finding him inside when we were absolutely positive we'd shooed him out!