Oh those barn swallows-- My Itty bitty tippy

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Marty

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I'm not a bird hater but I do not want those darn barn swallows in my barn. It began a few years ago where we had about 6 birds building nests in the barn. My boys would remove the nests and place them outside in the trees. But as the years went on, more and more birds were taking up residence in my barn. They just keep coming and coming year after year until last year I swear I had over 50-70 in my barn.

They built a number of nests inside, on and around my light fixtures. Then they would roost at night up along the electric wires that run along the top of my barn over the stalls. The result was disgusting. I had bird crap everywhere and on everything and it stunk. They crapped in my horse's water buckets, in the feed buckets, mineral blocks, all over the clean bedding, in the motor parts of the fans and on top of the horses. i mean to tell you my horses had bird crap on their heads, backs, you name it. I was livid and it had to stop. I had no intention of getting salmonella poisoning either and that is a real possibility.

So here's my solution and my tip:

Go to the garden area in Walmart, the inside part, not outside by the plants. Look for a flat clear plastic package that says something like 'Garden Netting" Its about $6.98 or so. Its a huge piece more than I could use so I cut as much as i needed and I nailed it up on both doorways to my barn so it would cover from top to bottom..When the horses go out, I lift it up and when they want to come back in I leave an opening about 3" high on one end. They have no problems with it but the birds do. They can't get in except an occasional one that might find the 3' opening and fly under it .But I fixed that too. The birds seem to all come in from the back door of the barn for some reason so that is the doorway that I leave the netting touching the ground. A few did get stuck in the net from time to time and they eventually get loose .Other times I would help them get out of it but never had a bird fatality. Now the wind will blow the net so I used a staple gun to secure the sides about half of the way down. If you are plagued like I am with barn swallows you need to try this.

This has been a public service announcement.
 
Painting the ceiling a light sky blue also can help. I found that out when visiting a yacht club. They say it helps with bird and wasps...
 
I too dislike bird poo on everything so I installed an army of cats....seems to do the trick. I hand aluminum pie tins and shiny curling ribbon from the raftors and it deters them from flying in. Netting wasnt an option in my barn because of the rafter design and the 100y/o oak boards wont take staples...and I wasnt drilling thousands of tap holes to set nails. So i had to find an alternative. I also hung an own statue in the loft and it seems to deter those pesky birds.
 
I have barn kitties who are on the job but the birds keep coming back. I also did a couple of years of pie tins and old CD disks. I also have a fake owl but I still have birds. Nothing works anymore except the nets. I think my birds are smart. ugh.....

My doorway is 12 feet wide. I only have about 6 nails (on the inside) and I just hook the netting on it. Easy peasy

Barn May 07.jpg
 
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Now me....I LOVED them when I lived up in an area where the mosquito was the State Bird. I had an old wooden garage where they built most of their nests, but I didn't mind the few in the horse barn (but then I rarely stall my horses).
 
I'm going to get more bird houses too and hopefully that would help.
 
I HATE barn swallows.I have LOTS and they aren't back yet, but soon I'm sure.They are nasty birds and carry several bad things.My Minis have had lice in the winter(very hairy horses to treat)got rid of lice with dog flea and tick control product.They also carry mites and spread them everywhere.I got mites from the waist up into my hair.Mites are difficult to get rid of.Of course they rode in on me from the barn and got in my sofa and on my computer chair.Got stuff from the hardware store and got them under control in the house.When they are here I knock down nests in the AM and by PM feeding the nests are built back.I wish I could hire them to do some constructive work.I used netting last year and it helped some.Need to get a bigger piece for my back door of my big old dairy barn.Not looking forward to their return.
 

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